Those are words that no parent likes to hear, since it's hard when your child is sick. But, those words take on an additional meaning when you have to go to work. It's also funny how those words seem to materialize on Monday morning around 7am instead of Friday afternoon when there's the weekend ahead to recover.
A couple weeks ago, I took my kids to the mall to play in the inflatable wonderland for a birthday party, because I'm cool like that. It's in the middle of the mall where rambunctious children are free to jump, climb and slide down air-filled vinyl dream castles. You would think a woman my age would have come to terms long ago with other people's selfishness as was so noticeably obvious from all the sick kids surrounding us like an ambush.
So, of course, two of my kids got sick. Although I realize I cannot keep them stuck inside and quarantined, one does expect to go to a heavily populated public facility without being deliberately exposed to whooping cough, malaria, bird flu and other highly infectious diseases. I know they didn't get that sick, but it sure does feel like it!
Anyways, last week, I'm awakened by the sounds of Joseph and Hunter throwing up. Luckily they were able to get to the toilet first. Poor guys spent an entire week with a tidal wave of nausea, driven to their needs of frequent toilet gazing, vomiting, and running to the toilet with it coming out of both ends. When they were not hugging the toilet, they were sleeping. I spent my time comforting them, going to work and disinfecting. It was exhausting for them and for me. It was one of those weeks that could make a person question why anyone would want to be a Mother. In fact, it was the kind of week that people point to and say, "See, that is exactly why I am never going to have kids! Who would want to do that?"
In the early mothering days, when I had a week like that, I would dissolve into a puddle of despair, thinking, "This is what I am in for for the next 20 years. I can't go on if I am ever going to have another day like this. I must have been insane to sign up for this!"
While I still wonder if I am crazy occasionally, I have a little different perspective now. I know from experience that yes, there will be another poopy day like this in my future, probably many. But, I also know from experience that there will be a billion wonderful little moments that make the poopy days entirely worth it. I know something that those women who choose not to have kids will never know. I know how it feels to hold your newborn and to have a 3-year-old whisper in my ear "I love you, Mommy." I know how your heart swells with pride when your 7 year old overcomes something that challenges him, and how it feels to watch a little one while they sleep. It's a feeling that can't be explained, which is why it will always seem crazy to someone outside looking in, when I say that even last week, with all the poop, I still love being a Mom.
Last night after I wrote this post, I got sick as well. Trying to decide whether to sit on the toilet or hug it was not a decision I wanted to have to make. Oh, the joys of being a mommy. :) I wouldn't change it for the world! I hope this little lady doesn't get sick and if she does.... I hope she recovers before Christmas or catches it after Christmas. Say a little prayer for her, please.
I hope all of you have a healthy Christmas this weekend.
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