Sick Days

Originally published by my friends at Stridepost.com.  Re-printed here with permission)

(Today’s article is brought to you by random viruses, and Children’s Tylenol and Chinese herbs.)  

So my daughter caught a bug.   She misses most of them, and is generally pretty healthy, especially when compared to many of her peers.   But… stuff happens. Sick days are not nearly as fun as snow days, but they are just as unavoidable. And today it’s my turn to hang out at home with her while my wife sees patients.   My wife, who, in the name of full disclosure, is way better at this than am I.

I found myself vaguely anxious about the logistics of her being sick, because, with my wife’s schedule, she’s the one who primarily takes care of it. Did you know it’s really easy to call your child off from school? I assumed, but now can report it to be so, with confidence.

And we worked out an agreement where she can keep her nightgown on all day, but had to add leggings or sweatpants so her legs don’t turn into icicles and fall off.

And she’s almost finished her orange juice.

Can Dad of the Year award be far behind?

The decision to keep her home, one we all struggle with on occasion, was easy this time. Fevers tend to cut through the decision-making clutter. While there’s a ton of gray area when it comes to coughs and colds and headaches, fevers are far more black and white. Vomiting helps with ones’ decision-making paradigm, too.   Insert “Clears the head” joke here.

So today’s a day of forced inactivity for me, and the 3^rd such day in a row for her. It remains to be seen who cracks first.

I know there will be lots of reading of books, and some artistic pursuits. Depending on how she’s feeling in a bit, perhaps a trip to the pediatrician. I hear tell that he’s relocated to a different office in the same building since I last was with her. I expect there’s s directory on the wall there that will help me find my way…

As the evening draws to a close, I can add the following to what I wrote earlier:

There WAS a directory.  Seems they don’t want to actually hide from their patients. I wish we had soup in the house, but we did have lots of Lemon Zinger Tea and honey, so….Win some, lose some.

My daughter’s far more adept at the Xbox game that we play, than am I. But she was patient with me, which is nice. Not doing a lot can be exhausting. She’s heading off to bed, and tomorrow will be another day. I don’t get to spend a ton of one on one time with her, and wish perhaps I had tried to accomplish less, and just hung out on the couch with her a bit more.

So, remember, like with snow days, when circumstances outside of your control dictate you call off work and stay home with your child…. focus on the upside.    We don’t get a lot of days like these.