My friends and I made a rule a long time ago that unless the kids were puking and unable to leave the house we wouldn’t let their sickies keep us from getting together.
The idea was that between all of us someone is bound to have a kid with the sniffles, cough, runny nose or whatnot. If we allowed those things to get in the way, we would never get together and in all honesty, if my boys get the sniffles from a friend’s kid that I was able to get quality adult time with, then so be it. I need my girls. I need my adult time and my kids will survive the sniffles.
My boys are 7 and 10 and this has worked just fine over the course of 10 years but last month one after the other, they both went down hard. After two visits to the Doctors Office, both were treated for Strep and Influenza B. Them along with about 20 other kids from school and what felt like half of America.
It was really the first time in my parenting career since the newborn stage that I felt so frustrated, helpless and in all honesty, bored out of my mind as we were stuck at home, life came to a halt, work had to pause and I just had to nurture my boys, one at a time and for a short time both at once.
As I was sitting there on what felt like day 67 scrolling my Facebook feed I came across a handful of heart-wrenching go fund me stories and parents begging for prayers for their little lives. Scary stories of babies with RSV and devastating stories of children’s cancer diagnosis. The realization of what we were dealing with was nothing compared to what the mamas of these babies had on their plates hit me hard. At that moment I decided that I was no longer feeling sorry for myself and that we were all going to make it out on the other end of this. Thanks to modern medicine my kids aren’t dealing with life-threatening illnesses as long as we give them proper treatment. And yes, this meant not getting together with friends because this was more than sniffles and runny nose.
We spent the rest of the week watching movies, playing board games, taking lots of naps and soaking up cuddles! Once I shifted my own mindset on the frustration of having sickies at home, taking care of them became easier! I truly enjoyed the cuddles and just let the rest of life sit still. Realizing that they’re still little and need me more than anything else that ”needed me” in that week was eye-opening and appreciated.
Sometimes just knowing that what you are dealing with is better than what it could change your perspective and gives you the strength to power through and in some instances even the chance to enjoy it!
