Remember When Sick Days Were Fun?

Remember when, as a kid, you had a sick day from school? You got to stay home, watch as much TV as you wanted, and pretty much got waited on hand and foot. Sure, you didn't feel the best, but non-stop Nickelodeon and Popsicles for breakfast wasn't a bad trade. Unless, you were the parent who was doing the nursing and frantically trying to re-juggle your day.

And that is the perspective I relate to these days. Daycare called yesterday at 4pm with the news that Nick had a fever. Of course, yesterday and today are two days I cannot miss at work, because the Board of Directors' meeting is taking place (I'm currently on the 5:50am train to work after being there until 8pm last night). So, once again Mark has to throw his schedule out the window and stay home. Luckily, he has no meetings today. 

I always miss my mom, but on days like these I really wish I could talk to her, if for nothing else than to say, "I get it." I can remember hearing the tension in her voice when I would call her to come get me from school, because I was sick. And I remember thinking, "how can you be mad at me for being sick?" Well, she wasn't. She was probably freaking out about dropping everything at work. And in those days, she couldn't even do a quick alert to people via email or keep up on the basics of the day via remote access (the debate on whether our current access to technological connection is a good or bad thing is for another post). 

Aside from the logistics of getting everything covered, there is the emotional toll of not being able to be with your sick little one. It kills me that I can't stay home and cuddle Nick today. Or that when Elaine was so sick about a month ago, I was in an even more intense work situation and had to be MIA. And so, the debate of "to work or not to work" rages anew in my head this morning. 

At least Lainey is home to help Mark. He just sent me the below...