The tummy bug that has been circulating my kids’ preschool room has hit our house. It hit me first, gave me a few days of total food aversion. Now, a few days later, my daughter is in the middle of the same phenomenon. It’s day 2 ½ and I thought it was done. Sadly, when she threw up all over the kitchen this morning, my plans to go to work were thwarted. (Picture me, in work clothing, undressing a vomit covered child, followed by cleaning the floor while fending off two kids that want to “help”.) Fine… you can laugh! I don’t mind. I’m over it by now.
My son isn’t really sick, at least not by a doctor’s definition, but he’s not totally well either. He’s teething horribly and the drool he’s producing could seriously fuel a nation in drought. In fact, I might not inflict him upon that nation. It might actually be too much liquid, create mass flooding. He has a cold and his mood has been somewhat foul.
Long story short, a sick day wasn’t wasted on him.
Nobody wishes for a sick kid, for a myriad of obvious reasons. Quite simply, who wants illness when you could be experiencing good health? Right? Of course, right.
That said, it’s day 2 of being stuck at home with the kids and I have been enjoying some of the hidden benefits of this unfortunate situation. With two sick kids any rational mom drops all expectations of being productive. Laundry? I think not. Real independent play? Hmmm… not so much. Cranky kids don’t always share so well. But that’s ok. I don’t work and play well with others when I feel like crap, and I have years of maturity on them. Why should they?
So, in the spirit of at least attempting to be the mom I aspire to be, I dropped all my expectations of functionality and embraced the role of caretaker in mess ready clothing. We read every book on the shelf. And wow, do we have a LOT of books! It had been ages since we looked at some of them; it was a nice reminder of the literary variety represented in our personal kid library. And some of these books are really cute. We were able to experience them on a whole new level, reminding me of how much they have matured in the last few months.
Meals were haphazard and random. As queasy stomach was the symptom of the day, I was NOT going to feed them a huge meal. Seeing it again in the diaper is good enough for me, I don’t need a revisit in any other form, thanks. We had tiny little meals every 45 minutes or so and everything stayed where it was supposed to. Excellent.
I also caught up on my hug quota, big time. Day to day life, with healthy kids, allows for a tremendous amount of movement and rushing. In the rush of getting things done, we sometimes forget to stop and snuggle. I’d like to think that I accurately hear the difference between a distress cry and a tantrum cry, but there’s gotta be some screams in the gray area between. Busy moms sometimes reprimand when a comfort hug would have been much more kind. Oh, and much more effective as well. I would be arrogant to claim that I don’t fall victim to such mistakes. With two sick kids, I was kid piled all morning, two munchkins curled up in my lap happily. My shirt may be snot covered, but my heart is happy and light. And my kids’ glassy eyes are twinkling with love.
Physical health is a huge topic for most parents, but emotional health? Even the best of us lose sight of it. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE mental health days every once in a while. No responsibilities, no errands, no schedule.
I guess sometimes we have to stop and think. We like to complain that we don’t get what we wanted, that we lost control of our day. But maybe we got what we needed, even if we didn’t realize at that time.
I will tell you this. In my house, we will all be better off for having had two days of rest, whatever the cause.
And I appreciate it.
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