Calling in Sick

School has started and, inevitably, so has the sharing of germs. Yesterday my son was sick with a fever, stuffy nose, and an occasional tummy ache. As soon as I took his temperature, the dread set in. My thoughts varied from, “Oh my gosh I hope he doesn’t throw up,” to “I feel so bad for him.” I mentally went through all of the things I was going to have to cancel. My calendar is full this week. I have work, volunteering, cleaning, a class to attend, a church event, taking my daughter to swim team practice three times this week and dance once. The list goes on. But then my mind went from full blown panic to clarity. My son needs me. I cancelled my errands for the day and stayed at home. That is right where I needed to be and I knew the things I thought I HAD to do didn’t actually NEED to be done this instant. Instead of worrying about my checklist I got to spend some quality time with him. We relaxed, read some books, and talked about dinosaurs (his favorite thing to talk about!) Luckily, my little guy recovered pretty quickly and his fever went away.

Have you ever felt the panic of an unexpected sick day? I’m sure all of us parents have, whether we are stay at home parents or working parents. 5:58 Mom has a great blog post about unexpected sick days from a working moms point of view. Check it out here: https://558mom.com/unexpected-sick-days/. Can you relate? I’d love to hear your story!