So the other night we decided to bite-the-inoculation-bullet so to speak and we took the kids to the flu shot clinic at our pediatrician’s office.

My husband left work early to pick up the kids and I (it’s never a bad idea to have reinforcements when there’s shots involved) so that we’d arrive plenty early for the 6pm – 8pm flu clinic window.

And when we drove up we were greeted by a line that was already halfway around the block.

Now this was not just a line, like at the DMV, where you can spend your time slurping on an ice coffee, checking out the fab shoes on the girl in front of you, or checking your Blackberry incessantly.

Oh no.

This was a line of tired parents on a chilly October night, each with at least one toddler in tow, who by the minute were getting colder, hungrier, and more bored. But much to our surprise, the line managed to stay quite civil and the staff was a well-oiled flu clinic machine. Clipboards and forms were flying down the line with fantastic efficiency, although I would agree with my husband’s suggestion that it would have been much more festive if the nurse handing out the clipboards did so dressed as a swine. It is almost Halloween after all.

As the line finally snaked into the heated lobby, a gentleman carrying a big cooler scooted around us into the office for a pick-up. Now he was probably picking up the day’s lab samples of various body fluids for testing (eww!). But I personally think it would also have lightened the mood if there were say, a case of beer in there. But during our 1 1/2 hours wait we did manage to have some quality family time, during which I learned that my son knows the hand-clapping rhyme “Miss Mary Mac” (!?!) so we practiced it a few times.

Then as the line got shorter, and we got closer to the moment of truth, my conviction waivered.

Should we be getting this vaccination?
Mist?
Shot?
Seasonal?
H1N1?!
Parents in line were having similar moral dilemmas as to what to do…I even saw one couple squabbling over it.

But when it was our turn, we talked to the nurse, got a game plan, got our stickers and headed into the office. Then the most wonderful, patient and pretty nurse I’d ever met, “Melissa,” managed the daunting task of giving both of our uncooperative children a seasonal flu mist squirt up the nose, and an H1N1 shot in the arm. And despite the late hour, the very long line, and the tiny examining room with all of us crammed in it, she remained perfect cheerful, patient and caring as my son made me “practice” on his arm three times by pinching it really hard. And finally, when for the fourth time he yelled, “but I’m not ready yet!!!”, I gave her the knowing nod, hugged (restrained) him tight in my lap with his left bicep exposed out of his Star Wars t-shirt, and she went for it.

He yelped.

Our little ballerina (she still had her tutu on from class) whimpered in the corner.

So after the ordeal, I thanked Melissa for a job well done and we made a hasty exit and headed for our favorite cozy Italian restaurant down the street – the very restaurant that I went into labor with our son. As we sat there eating pasta, I thought about how it’s these little moments that you just don’t think about when you’re pregnant…or more specifically, when you start having contractions midway through a plate of eggplant parm.

Back then the idea of having a baby was about the right diapers, a good stroller and sleeping through the night. And it’s just not that simple anymore. It’s amazing, wonderful, scary and ovewhelming. And now they have their own opinions and likes and dislikes and I can’t control the environment around them 24/7 anymore…And I just hope and pray we make the right choices for them, medical or otherwise, most of the time.

I’ve talked to friends about this whole flu shot thing, I’ve read, debated, fretted, web searched, facebooked and chatted about it. The whole thing is quite daunting. But when my son asked me how the shot worked, I told him it’s kind of like putting a super shield inside his body that will help fight off the flu that could make him sick and feel really, really yucky.

He liked that analogy, and so did I.

It’s so hard to know sometimes if you’re protecting your kids too little or too much. You just have to weigh all the options and sometimes, decide to give it a shot.