When the kids on the playground in 1961 learned my mother was a nurse, they were horrified. 'Does she give you shots every day?!' I'd awkwardly explain she wasn't a nurse at home, she was a mom.

It's unlikely Florence Nightingale ever gave a shot in her life, but at some point in the 20th century, injecting vaccines and drugs became a major part of many nurses' duties. And you were very likely to be on the receiving end if you were a little kid whose parents were educated about the necessity of these new healthcare advances measured in a syringe.

Time passed, and I too became a parent educated about the necessity (by law in the US when it came to vaccines) of new healthcare advances for my kids.