Community Corner
Moms Don’t Get Sick
Gone are the days of being tended to on sick days. Now we're the ones who must do the tending no matter how we feel.
I write this column with a box of tissues and a hot cup of tea with honey on my desk.
As fate would have it, I’ve succumbed to the illness that has run rampant in my home this past week. But moms don’t get sick, at least that’s what I tell myself. I couldn’t possibly have a cold. It just can’t be.
Other moms will agree that with the responsibilities we take on each week, there’s just no time for sickness. It’s not an option.
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I reminisce about the days when I could be sick and stay in bed for days with not a care in the world other than what homework I had to make up. Mom would bring me warm things to eat and drink while I read books, slept or watched movies. That was the life. Now it’s my job to bring the warm things to drink.
Even as a young adult in my career, a sick day from work wasn’t the end of the world. I could sit in my bed with my laptop and phone and still accomplish most of what I had to do. There were no little ones asking for a snack or needing to go potty. My, how times have changed.
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Moms, we don’t get sick days. Isn’t that right?
No matter how we feel, no matter what our temperature, when that alarm buzzes it’s time to go to work, whatever that work may be.
In my house, morning work consists of getting the kids dressed, fed, teeth brushed, hair combed, homework checked, lunch packed and on the bus at 8:14. There’s no staying in bed, warm under the covers.
There are dishes to put away, laundry to be sorted and washed, shirts and pants to be ironed. Soon it’s time for lunch to be made for the little one still at home even if the thought of food makes you want to run and hide. Someone has to do it!
Am I alone, or do you feel a pang of guilt when you start feeling under the weather?
I feel like I’m not holding up my end of the deal. I feel guilt about sticking that little one in front of the TV for an hour or two just so I can sit down and have a cup of tea in between loads of laundry. Who has energy to make play dough creatures when you have a fever of 102 degrees and are sneezing every 10 seconds? Yet it bothers me tremendously that I am failing at my job.
And then there’s the ‘other’ work, whatever it may be. For me, it’s writing this column, editing photos, preparing for another Avon order and making a general list of to do’s for the upcoming week.
No, there’s no time for sickness. I‘ll set my mind to believe that I’m not sick … it’s just the weather. (Ah-choo!)