I don't know how these things work out, but they always do. The whole family just can't seem to get sick all at once and get it over with, or one at a time. It's all got to happen in these weird phases that just make everything all the more complicated.
Generally the kids are the first to come down with something. Link's had a weak immune system all his life and gets sick at the drop of a hat. He's already had his first trip to the hospital, IV and everything, all in time for his third birthday, what a way to celebrate? Happy birthday, you have strep throat! Since birth if someone around him is carrying a cold or the flu, we'll know pretty soon, Link will come down with it, though he's gotten better these days.
Typically that's how it goes. First he comes down with it, and most times it's only been him. Thankfully he's been a lot better lately. He doesn't get everything that everyone else gets. I guess his body is finally catching up on resistances, something that's made me much happier because he was once sick almost all the time. I was inspired to put him in a bubble to protect him from all the nastiness in the outside world, but if I'd done that his immune system never would have gotten stronger. It just meant suffering through one kid that got sick at the drop of a hat with things none of the rest of us would ever catch.
More recently it's been both the older two that get sick first. They catch the flu or a cold, probably because they're exposed to so many other kids. I don't like sounding like kids are breeding grounds for disease, but let's face it, kids hang out with a lot of other kids, and often a big variety of them. Adults, on the other hand, generally only see the same groups of people. Kids also pick things up at the park or playground, and everyone knows the way diseases travel in school. Adults don't really have those kinds of factors in our lives for the most part. On top of that, kids immune systems aren't as strong as adults in most cases, which means they're much more likely to come down with something. Kids also do crazy things like share snacks and drinks, pick their noses, and forget to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze. No one can really blame them. That's just kids being kids.
So the kids bring home something and are sick and miserable. This generally ends up with the kids up all night and miserable, and fighting all day because they didn't want to get the rest they needed. I should be used to it by now, but what parent truly is? It's never fun to have sick kids.
However, I've got to admit that when we're all sick at once, it's so much easier. It's almost like we get to get it done and over with. Granted, Chesh rarely gets sick, so there's always someone to take care of the sick people in the house, but even when he's sick too, we generally end up putting on something entertaining to watch while the whole family mostly ignores it and sleeps the day away, for once getting the rest we all truly need. It's just too bad that never happens.
Instead two or three days after the kids get sick, that's when it hits me. Maybe it's because I spend so much time trying to handle the kids when they're sick, but it always kicks me in the butt every time. What's a small case of the sniffles for the kids turns into a major head cold for me. They get a cough that lasts a day or two. I get a persistent, wracking cough that lingers for weeks and doesn't seem to want to quit. They get the flu and a little stomach upset and I end up in bed with a stomach ache for days. Somehow it doesn't seem fair that I take care of them so they recover quickly, yet in return I end up being kept down for much longer. What's worse is they seem to take the whole mentality of "when the cat's away" and go crazy, or worse, start arguing, whining, and causing trouble so I have to get involved when really I'd rather just lock myself in my room, buried in blankets with a perpetually hot tea by my side so I can sleep until I'm well.
It's just so frustrating that every single time this happens, I end up sick a couple days later. What's worse is most times it ends up interfering with what the kids want to do. I end up sick on the day that they have a play date, or I end up sick when the kids have their co-op. It just doesn't seem fair to them that they have to miss these things because I'm sick.
If only the world were different, so that moms never got sick. Then moms could be at home to take care of their children when they were sick without having to worry about their kids missing out on things. It'd be nice if moms didn't have to take a sick day from work to care for their sick child only to have to take another a few days later because things turned around and now they're the one not feeling well. It's just too bad the world doesn't work differently.
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