Dear Karen and others who insist on staying with their children during
procedures:

Stay with your kids. Period.  Always. There's ample research that kids who
protest the painful (uncomfortable, scary, etc) procedures in the dental
chair and medical lab (etc) are healthy and normal.  This even applies to
teens, husbands, etc. - everyone needs an advocate!  Abandoning them so the
dentist, doctor, etc can more comfortable is not in their best interest. Good
docs and dentists understand, explain what they can, ask the young (or old)
patient to be cooperative, tell the truth about the amount and duration of
pain, and encourage a comforting companion to stay.  Keep looking for the
good ones, and compliment them by bringing your business to their practices
and telling the insurance companies and their employers why you are satisfied
or not.

Last year my 19-year old son, a beefy lifeguard, dehydrated to the point of
needing two bags of IV fluids and was very grateful that I stayed with him
the whole time in the ER. Stay with you kids.

Linda Smith, advocate of epoxy-parenting.