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Tuesday
Nov182008
Sick day superlatives
^note to my kids: please don't lick your palms. Or try to fake me out.
I knew it was going to happen. We have another sick one around here. Sam's home with a fever and headache today (and yesterday) so in his honor I've got some sick day superlatives:
Best pseudo-sick day movie ever: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, of course! Maddy watched Sleepless in Seattle when she was sick last week and Harry Potter is on Sam's list today.
Best drink for a sickie: Sprite. Apple juice. Water with ice and a straw.
Best place to set up sick camp: on the sofa with pillows and blankets, near a t.v. & some books
Best time to be sick: Tuesdays and Thursdays, please, or I have to miss class. Sundays are also acceptable (and we may have to do paper-rock-scissors to decide who gets to stay home from church with the sickie...what? don't judge me!).
Best lunch for a sickie: chicken noodle soup (confession: from a can), saltines, applesauce, pudding. Or a bundled-up trip through the drive thru (fresh air does a body good, even if the fast food doesn't)
Number of days until I call the doctor: 2-4 depending on symptoms. (I try to keep a good reputation around the doctor's office as being a non-alarmist mom. Although I did notice Maddy's appendix symptoms very early on and had rock star status with our doctor for a while.)
Symptom most likely to convince me to keep someone home: nausea. I can't verify it and it has foreseeable consequences if I ignore it. Also fever. Verifiable, of course.
Best signs that it's time for the sickie to go back to school: He/she has enough energy to argue with brother/sister, begins to complain of boredom (if you're truly sick, you're too wiped out to be bored...except if you have chicken pox etc.), or can run around.
Words most commonly heard around when there's a sickie home: "Did you wash your hands, honey?" "Cover your mouth, please" "How are you feeling, sweetie?" (I pull out all the endearments when someone's sick.)
Most likely time someone will get sick: right before a vacation. (Proof here and here.) Runner up: on a day I have to be somewhere (today: class and a seminar and a vet appointment. Oh well.)
Worst after-effect of sick-days: All that make-up homework from school (kids). Rescheduling everything I cancelled (me).
Best after-effect of sick-days: Alone time with the sickie (day one) , PLUS a tidier, more organized house from my puttering (days two+)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Reader Comments (13)
Ahhh! Not another sick kid. Don't they know they'll get the best love and attention if they're sick on Sundays? Seriously, I am never so nice to the sickies as on Sunday.
LOVE the Bueller lesson photo. Best part of that movie is when the secretary picks up the phone and pretends to be Ed Rooney, "Uggh, uggghh." Hilarious.
Sorry about the sick kids.
Ah yes, I stayed home from church with two little sickies yesterday. It was so, so lovely!
This is so funny and so true! Now does it make me a bad person if I get excited when someone is sick on a Sunday and I just have to stay home with them??!!
Sorry to hear Sam is sick. Quick get out the anti-bac before you all get it!! Hope he feels better soon.
Lindsay
wow. you are way too nice. in order to discourage anyone from actually WANTING to stay home sick, i ban tv, toys and interaction with others. it's solitary confinement. one day of that, and they're begging to go back to school.
please don't let them know there are moms out there like you. i'll be ruined.
Andrea, you're on to something. Maybe I'm a sick enabler and didn't even realize. I think I'll try your way. I'll let you know...
This is a funny little almanac for a sick day.
Jamie says he's sick several mornings a week to see if he can stay home and watch TV, but he's quickly bundled out of the door :)
Just finished writing my own complaint. I'm up to my eyeballs in it. The best? When they spend the night and part of the day throwing up, then feel better and go w/out throwing up for 24 hrs. You then send them to school (and dance class) and by that night they're throwing up again.
oops.
sorry, you poor unsuspecting first grade class.
although,
that's probably where it came from in the first place...
I used to fake sick all the time because my mom was a total sickness enabler.
Being one of seven, I thrived on the one-on-one attention, the Coke with a straw and daytime tv.
(Mom made it cushy...because when I stayed home because she had a built-in babysitter. It was our unspoken agreement. No algebra for me, and she could meet a friend for lunch!)
Sometimes I would make a rapid recovery and convalesce (sp?) at the mall in the afternoons.
I would feign sick if you were my mom too.
Hope you survive. I would be going crazy by now if I were you! Good luck.
Tis the season, no? Wow, would I love to be sick at your house! Missing you guys! Tell all we say hello.
Amen!
I want to be a sick kid at your house. My mom made our sick days pretty boring so we didn't often stay home. She said if you are going to be sick, then be sick and don't expect to have a lot of fun. My husband's mom, on the other hand let him call in sick whenever he wanted. It is a miracle he graduated from high school. I think I will take a happy middle road between these two parenting styles. Your way looks good.