No matter if you have green boogers or not, you’re still getting out of bed.
Readers, I am sick. I hate being sick. My head is cloudy and I’m coughing and sneezing and generally miserable. Pretty much all I want to do right now is go to bed…with a giant shot of Nyquil, of course. Thing is, I can’t. There is too much “stuff” to do. Work stuff, mom stuff, wife stuff and don’t let me forget the laundry that’s been sitting in the dryer for two days waiting to be folded.
As much as I’d love to wallow in self-pity, I still managed to get up today, do some work, cart the kid to preschool and kick a friend’s rear in Words with Friends . Mothers, it seems, don’t get sick days. I know this is fodder for pretty much any family sitcom out there…the kids are sick all episode, the husband comes home from work a sweaty, feverish mess and mom steps up to care for the brood, only to find herself at the closing credits stifling a sneeze with a look of dread. The dread comes from knowing that she’s pretty much on her own.
Oh sure, there’s all those women I see posting on Facebook…the ones whose spouse takes the day off work to care for them and fetch all sorts of behind the counter medications that require a drivers license to purchase, without even so much as a batted eye. I think these women are A) The luckiest women in the world or B) Crazy to think that their husbands need to play nursemaid and bring them chicken soup. In our family, I make the soup and the husband goes to work.
Recently, I had a major operation…and I’m still not quite recovered from it. For the first two weeks, my husband couldn’t leave my side. I was totally helpless and couldn’t actually walk unassisted. I hated every single minute of it. It wasn’t just the fact that I was in the worst pain of my life or that I had a crazy reaction to a medication that caused visual hallucinations, it was that I wasn’t in control and had to let someone else care for me. That kind of vulnerability is just not something I’m comfortable with.
Some people (and to be honest, I’ve hidden most of you) cannot stop talking about their ills and ails online. Really? Do I need to hear about your chronic illness every morning while I’m browsing status updates while waiting for the coffee to brew? If you are complaining about the sniffles more than sharing any other aspect of your life that might be joyful, you need to step away from the keyboard and wash your hands more often. And sanitize your keyboard and run your toothbrush through the dishwasher.
I’ve been told that I lack sympathy for sick people. Tell me that you aren’t feeling great and I’ll tell you to go sit somewhere else. It’s not that I don’t care, I just have better things to do than talk about the common cold. I also do everything I can to NOT get sick in the first place. I figure working around toddlers for the past 4 years has got to have a good effect on my immune system and I am vigilant about hand washing practices at home and at work.
Still, even with the strictest safeguards, after the first month at a new school, my kiddo came home with a case of the sniffles. It happens…to all of us, but us mommas are the ones holding the tissues and not the ones waiting for some VapoRub ointment to be rubbed on their feet (I swear it work for nighttime coughing!). So, here I close, a tired and ill mess who still managed to get her column in this week.
Related Topics: Mom sick day , commonc cold , kat stremlau , and sick moms
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment