I’m a stay-at-home-mom – actually, you know what, I’m going to just go hog wild here and refer to myself as a work-at-home-mom instead, because I do WORK, dammit – and that means I’m here all the time. Every day.
And THAT means that I’m much more likely than other moms, I presume, to allow my kids to have a sick day. I imagine working moms out there are laughing at the tiny, wee little potential health problems that have served as sick day excuses around here. “Oh, does baby-waby have a sniffle-wiffle? Then baby-waby is GOING TO SCHOOL ANYWAY, GROW A PAIR KID.”
Not around here, oh no! The smallest hint of a sore throat or fever of 37.4 is enough to warrant a day on the couch, while Mommy curls up beside you with her warm, warm laptop, occasionally interrupting the steady stream of movies and video games to encourage you to drink a little gingerale. Is baby-waby feeling any better-wetter?
I may sound a little bitter and jaded, but that’s only because both the Captain and Gal Smiley have been home all day. They both developed a cough overnight, which meant they didn’t sleep well, so they woke up with red eyes and slightly sore throats and the occasional polite heh-heh coming out of their mouths. The Captain, in particular, gets a little asthmatic when he gets a cold, so he immediately spikes a fever, which always makes him feel extra crappy.
So this morning we did the usual should-we-or-shouldn’t-we dance, where we try to determine exactly HOW sick they are, and if they are up for gym class or not, or if they are up for outdoor recess or not, or if they will infect anyone else, or what. In the end, we decided that the Captain’s cough and fever, combined with first period gym, meant he got to stay home; Gal Smiley suckered me into it when she lay her big sad head on the breakfast table and declared herself too tired to sit upright. Poor, sad, baby-wabies.
And of course, by mid-morning they were plenty able to a) scream and bounce around on the couch over some video game, b) fight over which movie they were going to get to watch, while asking me if they could each have a big bowl of chips while watching, like I may be a sucker but I’m not a TOTAL sucker, geez, and c) declare themselves too sick for lunch, but plenty healthy enough for cookies. All the while not showing any signs of fever, cough, or tiredness.
SUCKER.
Tomorrow, everyone is FREAKING GOING TO SCHOOL. And next time, you better be at death’s door, kiddos.
TurtleHead 
I hit my breaking point on Friday afternoon and then was being really hard on myself for being so crabby. Then I realized that in the 30 days from Dec 21st to January 21st my children had only been in school EIGHT FREAKIN’ DAYS – and that’s why I was so crabby!
we missed the bus on Thursday and since I don’t drive there was no way i was going to walk my oldest daughter to school for a 20 minute walk that would take 30 minutes, then walk back home with my toddler. My girl is usually in a great mood but when she is sick she is pretty pathetic and lies on the couch. and is a pile of mush 😦 you want to be there for them too incase it progresses, but you don’t want them to take advantage of it either- i get it. My girl is still in kidnergarden so somedays we take a hooky day and go to the museum. Since as I have said before I don’t drive – it is an all day event.
So funny! This happened to me one day last week. The mister made the mistake of suggesting the Little Man had a virus, which he interpreted as “I can’t go to school because I’ll make everyone else sick”. Being a work-outside-the-home-mom with an incredibly crazy day meant if he were to stay home, I’d have to find a back up. Enter my parents. And the funnest “sick” day the Little Man has ever had. Or ever will have. Oh, and guess who was read the story “The boy who cried wolf” that evening? 😉
I hate the pressure of the decision-making… am I a too-lenient mom letting them stay home for not-very-much (and sure to be annoyed when, as you say, they’re perfectly fine two hours later), or am I a mean mom, sending a kid off to school who will then puke in the wastepaper basket?
That did happen…
I always say, give me a healthy, happy kid or a full-on vomiting, feverish kid but it’s those in-between sniffly-snuffly days I despise. Why, oh why do I have to make so many decisions every single day?
haha, grow a pair kid! love it!
LOL. I got a kid home due to emotional exhaustion. Yep, you heard right. He needs a break.
Ok, in all seriousness, he really does, and I already made a blog post about it but hesitate to publish it (should I talk about it? how should I mention it if I do?). Still, the stay/work at home thing…I’m there too. I cherish my child-free hours. And Xmas break wasn’t that long ago…
Lucky for me it’s the easy kid who stayed home. Alone, too. He’s on the floor whacking a ball around with a stick, watching hockey highlights. Doesn’t yap at me. Doesn’t need help. Doesn’t want anything. If it was the other one…or both together….I’d be not particularly pleasant and certainly not commenting on blog posts.
blah.
🙂
That was my entire winter last year! Except it was all of us not just my daughter who had to take sick days. Ugh…
I had one home with a cold and the other with school burn out last week. The kicker was that I still had to go up to the school and pick up my friends’ son because I was watching him after school. They somehow had lots of energy for video games and arguing with each other and I realized that I need to be a much meaner mom sometimes. I feel your pain.
I would like to borrow some of their marvelous bounce-back, please (said the woman with the cough that has resettled itself back in her chest and probably needs a full-on exorcism).