Well hello! Welcome to Weekend Reads: sick child edition. My little one has been up vomiting since 3 am. He’s clean, hydrated, and back asleep now, and I’m clean, caffeinated and have a load of laundry going, so here we go!
Before we get on with it though, I have to interject a little working mom rant: A few months ago, a conservative Christian friend of mine linked to an aggressive treatise about how superior stay at home mothers were that I found a little offensive in it’s hyperbole. The comments he got were even more so: several of his friends jumped in to say that women who wanted to work shouldn’t have kids at all, because “why have kids if you weren’t going to raise them yourself?” When I saw him next, I expressed my issues with this, and said that while I COMPLETELY respect stay at home moms, the adversarial nature of the article and comments bugged me. He doesn’t have kids, but he stuck to his guns and defended the article by saying something about how stay at home motherhood was a 24 hour a day/7 day a week job, and most jobs were only 40 hours a week, so we should give SAHM’s credit for how much more they work than the rest of us. I stopped him and asked “wait, who do think gets up with my kid when he’s sick at 3 am?” This kind of stunned him. Apparently he had never considered that working 40 hours a week at a traditional job doesn’t actually mean the other 128 hours of the week are covered by someone else….or that day cares in general do not take a sick child. Unless you are wealthy enough to have a live-in on-call nanny, a middle of the night tummy bug is all on the adults in the house, no matter where they have to be in the morning. Parenting in general is a full time gig….no stay at home vs working vs mom vs dad caveats needed. /rant over
All right, now a few links for you:
If you’re looking for….advice on stomach bugs:
Mistakes to avoid when your kid has a bug.
Also, try this one on how to find child care when your kid is sick and you’re both working. More stomach bug stories.
If you’re looking for….a science kit of the month club:
Oh hey, someone started one! Looks cool.
If you’re looking for….a beautiful story of the impact an understanding parent can have:
From Mary: What kind of advice would a dairy farmer give his gay son in 1959? Don’t sneak.
If you’re looking for….some interesting thoughts on reality vs expectations:
Why we’re not always the parents we know we could be. Also from Mary.
That’s all I have in me today. I’ve got some more laundry to do. Stay well everyone!
Featured Image Credit: Chuckumentary
Thanks for the stomach bug link! I will bookmark that for later. Fortunately we have not had one yet but it’s only a matter of time…
Ugh, the withholding most water/milk/food until their stomach settles down part is the worst. Having a two year old beg you for a glass of water and having to say “no” for their own good is a really lousy feeling.
I love love love your working mom rant! And I am a monthly box addict, so running to check the science kit link!
Glad you liked it! It’s hard not to think of that story every time I have one of those middle of the night wake up calls now.
Let me know how the science kit is! My little one’s still too young, but I’m a monthly box addict too!
I still have two months left on a Green Crafts sub, but then Agent Ribbit will be ours! 😉