Our house had about 4 days of sick daughters. Fever, lethargy, vomit, the whole bit. Then they got better! Yay! The plague has moved on! As the primary parent (and all I mean by that is the one who is routinely at home more often and therefore able to do more household chores and all that) I took it upon myself to wash all the sheets, all the barf buckets and whatever else I thought might keep us from re-developing this particular plague.
Fast-forward a few days to my busy Christmas Party weekend. Hubby's party and my work party routinely fall on the same weekend - luckily we do Sundays and they do Saturdays. Usually it works out pretty well.
This year, not so much. We had lunch on Saturday with the family after the newest cousin's baptism but I didn't feel my sandwiches sitting quite right. Regardless I went ahead and ate, and then got ready later in the day and hubby and I went out to his party.
It was a good time - roast beef buffet, wine, and good company. Until my dinner and drinks did not like their accommodations. It was so bad I threw up twice at the venue. Went home, threw up a few more times and then slept.
Sunday morning I had to get up with the girls (at 6:30, of course.) This is all routine with us - I thought I was alright after a night's sleep. I stayed up for half an hour and that was all I could manage. I ate 2 tiny pieces of fruit and I had to go lay down. That was pretty much the last time I saw the girls until Monday morning, in those precious few moments before school.
I couldn't get myself together well enough to do anything that Sunday. Every time I tried to do anything, or if I managed to eat a few crumbs of something, I had to go lay down. For at least an hour at a stretch. I was so glad the girls were out for the day. I even had to skip out on my work Christmas party. That really bummed me out.
Hubby collected the girls from their Nanny day while I was upstairs sleeping off another smidgen of food I thought I should eat. I didn't see them, they didn't ask to see me, and when I awoke he had just finished getting them down so I didn't dare peek at them yet. Cue the mom guilt!
Overall I missed 3 nights in a row with my children and, rather than it feeling like an escape, it was a huge guilt burden for me. Of course the kids have no idea - I tried to tell them I was sorry for not being there for 3 bedtimes and they just looked at me like I was weird for apologizing. That didn't stop me from having a tear or two in my sentimental mom moment the girls didn't know I was having.
Being sick sucks - did I say that already? Luckily when I felt better I saw that hubby and the girls did a good job of looking after each other. Sure, there were dishes in the sink, and the laundry wasn't magically done or anything like that, but overall the house was still standing and all the advents hadn't been opened, and even Elf on the Shelf had managed to find a new resting place each day.
What happens in your house when one or (god forbid!) both parents are under the weather? Do routines have to change? Do the kids leave you alone to rest up? Share your experiences in the comments below!
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