When mom is not well, the house goes to hell! I’m sure you’ve been there and if not here, is a quick introduction into the world of motherhood and sickness. Taking care of kids is HARD, especially when they are sick. It always happens at night and usually on the one night you decided to stay up late or throw back a few drinks with dad or the girls. You stumble out of bed when you are summoned by this little voice calling for mommy. I’d say about 80% of the time vomit is involved. Now, you change the child, you change yourself, you get the child settled and in your bed then you begin cleaning vomit. By the time your done and crawl back into bed there usually is more vomit- now in your bed. You just dosed off and now your up again. You repeat all the steps, get back into bed and then oh-no you rush to the bathroom! The scene changes and all of the horror runs through your head as it hangs in toilet. You have just crossed over into sick child/sick mommy world. A world where daddy goes to work and you are on your own with sick child.
You crawl around on your hands and knees getting your other child ready for school. You have to get them on that bus -you can’t drive- they can’t get sick, too. As you wave to your child wrapped in a sleeping bag on your porch as the bus drives away, you imagine just lying around holding the other sick one. Everytime you drift off the phone rings and wakes you up. Your glad people are concerned, but too tired to care at the time. Then you get the dreaded phone call- from the school nurse- your son is sick at school. “Can you pick him up?” You have got to be kidding me! My closest family is 45 minutes away and they work. My 4 year old is sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor with a 102 fever. I can’t be further then 10 feet away from the toilet or I won’t make it. After a few calls and an odd conversation my girlfriend goes to pick up my son. I pass back out.
This is the scene of the crime. Two couches and the floor and thankfully a ton of magazines. My husband calls on his way home to see if we need anything. I give him a huge list. I’m a bit disappointed he said he’d be home early and I guess to him that would be 6:30. He comes home with a strange variety of items that I did not request. He had to go back out later because he bought adult medicine instead of kids and adult tooth brushes instead of kids. OOPS! Dads are not moms and so it should be. I still hang on to this crazy notion that he would wash all the dishes and do all the laundry and bring me a hot tea. Instead, he wants to throw a towel over the vomit that hit the bed instead of changing the sheets. OOPS! (FYI: I did not allow that)
I spend the next day on the couch with 2 sick kids and freezer full of frozen dinners. My son says “I don’t want a frozen dinner. I want a hot one” I want to die, my little one says he wants to die. The drama. Then as I’m lying there watching Brothers and Sisters the words of Nora Walker make me laugh, she says “Suck it up! your a mom.” Isn’t it true. We make it work, we bounce back, we nurture, and we do it like no one else can for our kids. This is truly one of those moments when you know that you have the hardest, most important job in the world.
So, when your little one gets sick and you know they will, I say, ” Enjoy the feeling of being the only one that can make them feel better.” Surrender your day and hold them. Things could be worse and you could be like me-lying there sick next to them wishing your mommy would hold you. Oh yes, I did!
Tabitha says
I love it! 🙂
Not that you were sick, but this post! It's great! I had the flu two weeks ago and was home with my 2 year old. Daycare is too far out of Hubs way – it takes him an hour to get to work already, I wasn't adding 30-45 min to his drive so he could go in the opposite direction to take Bug to daycare. And he'd never make it back before daycare closed so even if he dropped him off, I would have to go pick him up, NOT HAPPENING! LOL!
So, I laid on the couch, he destroyed the living room, we watch Thomas the Train DVDs and ate Smucker's PB&J sandwiches that all I had to do was thaw out. And by golly, when he went down for his nap I was right behind him!
And we survived….and HE never got sick! :)))
NorCalMom says
Nothing beats being cared for by mom when you are sick, no matter how old you are.
Hope you are all better soon!
I am enjoying your blog and have an award for you.
http://norcalmom-lemonstolemonade.blogspot.com/2011/01/wow-award-for-me.html
Uncle Wally says
Really good, well-written post! Men just can't be "moms"! I oughta know!