#170 Sick

My 4 year old is home sick today. He woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and a cough and hung out with me for a while before going back to bed. He was fever-free and in good spirits this morning, but I kept him home from school just to make sure it lasts and hopefully to avoid exposing all the other kids in his class—although it’s probably too late for that.




I remember staying home sick from school as a child. Even when we felt terrible, my mom also made us feel special. She would set us up on the couch with a TV tray and let us eat in the den, something that was only allowed on special occasions. She would make us hot tea and toast with jam, and if we had a stomach ache we would also get soda. This was a HUGE treat in our house. I’m still not sure why it was allowed for stomach aches, but we weren’t going to argue.



We didn’t have all of the entertainment options when we stayed home as our kids do today. This morning when I left for work (my husband stayed home) my son was alternating between the new video game my in-laws gave him for his birthday and streaming video from Netflix. Around naptime he’ll probably watch DVDs from the portable player set up next to his bed. We watched what was on the TV and if we wanted to change the channels we had to actually get up. Eric and I became aficionados of the game shows and soap operas. No whammies, no whammies, no whammies! Are you with me?



When we finally got a VCR, my mother discovered the free movies at the library. Unfortunately she only discovered one of them. “Some Like it Hot”, the black and white, 1959 comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon was a sick staple at our house. It’s still an ongoing joke—she would always get so excited when she would bring it home and ask us if we’d ever seen it as we groaned in disbelief.



I hope I can make my kids as comfortable as my mom made Eric and me. Even if we did have to watch the same movie over and over again.