I honestly think the disposition I have surrounding sickness is a bit neurotic. It is likely I have shared with you my love of hand washing and adoration for hand sanitizer. We have the smell good ones, the plain ones. You can find them in the house, bathrooms and of course, all the vehicles. It is almost a passion of mine to make sure you are safe and clear from germs. The teenagers give an ole eye roll the second they have to get in the van with me after a social event. I have the top off ready to squirt hands before the door is even closed. I think my husband pacifies me when I buy him extras to carry in his pockets while he travels around the great state. Crazy? Oh well! Let me explain…
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One must not fault a mother when she is protective.. There is always a sincere reason why and how the intensity came to pass. At least for me there is a multitude of reasons. For the flu season of 2020, the bubble I tried to keep us all in , let’s see, lasted about three months. If you knew the amount of admits, oxygen tanks, breathing treatments, doctors, meds and tears that have come to pass within G’s 10 years, all due to germs, you would maybe appreciate my dramatics in this department. Currently, “big man” is on oxygen full time…again. Finished not his first, but second, round of Tamiflu this season. I can’t just give him honey and tea folks. These types of viruses are game-changers. Deadly even. I go there too, in my mind. I go back to hospitalizations where I witnessed him turn gray, gasping for air. But thank you Jesus, so far this flu bout, we have not landed back there as I dreaded. Maybe I do not not give his little amazingly tough body enough credit for all it endures and has endured. Beside the point. What is my point?
Simple.
There are kids and adults out there who can work 9 to 5, or go to school, cook for the kids at dinner time or finish homework, train for a 5k or knock out ball practice all while being under the weather. There are kids and adults who assume that because they feel a tad bit better after Nyquil, it is free and clear to hit Target. These folks can hang. The immunity possessed in their normal functioning bodies is in fact stronger than some. There will be school days missed and work as well here and there. Now, I have been on both ends of the spectrum here. I have been a single working mother and I know how hard finding child care can be or even fear calling in to your job. This is not to be taken lightly either. But, for my point, let us visit another setting. Close your eyes and picture, a child not as healthy as the before mentioned. Maybe picture one in the hospital. Find great comfort in the fact that you are not thinking about your own, healthy ones. How about yourself? Put yourself in the Mother or Fathers shoes of this sick child. What sacrifices must they have made? Much more than meets the eye. So, after processing the machines you see and monitor sounds going off at all hours, remind your rather healthy self that you are at home. In your own bed. That is where your healthy child can heal too. So, I plead with you out there from this perspective, stay home until you are really well. No fevers. No diarrhea. Get that emphysema sounding cough to settle down. If you can’t, then get back to the doctor. Get the antibiotics. Eat the chicken noodle. Hey, you can try honey and tea. In doing so, you are helping protect some pretty valuable people. In doing so, you are telling me that you get it.