When Mom Gets Sick (And Dad is out of the country)
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Timing is everything.
And puke just doesn't understand the importance of good timing. It's a party-crasher. Marches to its own beat. Interrupts.
Puke is rude.
This time, however, it didn't attack a kid. It kicked Mom to the curb.
Now, perhaps it DID start with my son being sick on Mother's Day, for less than one week later, just as my husband was waking to catch an early flight to Haiti for a week-long mission trip, the flu hit me like a hammer to the stomach. He didn't kiss me good-bye.
Thank God for electronic communication, for it was via FB and texting that I was able to pawn out my children for my entire 24 hour boxing match with Hell.
What would I have done without the aid of friends?
Those brave friends who hosted my children, risking the possible infection of their own?
I seriously have no idea.
I learned a few things over that 24 hours.
When Mom gets sick, the kids figure out how to make breakfast - out of several boxes of Ritz crackers.
When Mom gets sick, the kids don't make me ask twice for them to clean their rooms - the Medusa-hair and stare is enough to get them moving.
When Mom gets sick, the kids put themselves to bed - via falling asleep on the couch watching Disney.
When Mom gets sick, the kids make an incredible mess downstairs. And then, when mom feels better, it only takes the "look" to inspire them to clean up that very same mess they made while she was upstairs dying.
When Mom gets sick, the kids pray for me.
When Mom gets sick, she forgets to write her post for Pittsburgh Mom and then quickly puts together a story about puke.
I hope you enjoyed it.
And yes, I'm feeling much better now.
But, in all seriousness, what DOES Mom do when she's down with something as vicious as the flu? How have you coped with illness in the past? Friends? Family? Who covers when Mom is off the grid?
Joline Pinto Atkins is an actress who also uses the web as her world-wide stage and can also be found writing at The Cuppa Jo, Workingmother.com, and is the founder and a contributor at Daily Fast Fuel. Joline is wife to one (phew - that's good to know) and mother of two amazing children, aged 11 and 7, who are both named after authors. Addicted to fitness, she is an Independent Team Beachbody Coachand sweats out any daily angst by exercising and P90X'ing, and longs for good books, vats of coffee, and an endless supply of buffalo wings - which she will not share with you. So, please, do not ask.