'Parents are professional too' introduces the concept of parents as professional equals, on their own course of continuing professional development
This inspiring new feature is kicked off by Rebecca Spataro-Kearns writes from America about a subject of anxiety on the heart of parents everywhere.
Mommy is Sick
I fought it hard. A mommy can’t, just doesn’t have the time to get sick, especially a mommy with a deployed husband. Well, try as I might - and I certainly did - I still got sick.
It started out as a simple sniffle, than progressed to a runny nose. I felt more like a 4-year-old, tissues in my hand, and stuffed into my pockets. I even have the red and raw patch under my nose that screams to everyone “I have a cold.”
I was so fed up with not sleeping due to excessive stuffiness and I was starting to get that feeling that the cold was migrating from my head into my chest, I took myself to the doctor’s. Now, I have to explain the severity of me wanting to go to the doctor, because here on the Army base it’s basically a suicide mission. I was pretty close to dead anyhow.
First off – let’s get an appointment. I called the clinic appointment line to try and see my primary doctor. What a joke! I rarely get in for a same day appointment with my primary, who by the way, will change as often as you change your underwear. I got an appointment at the Acute Care Clinic - same building, just where they send the overflow of patients.
Next, childcare – this is where going to the doctor brings on more aches and pains. Unless your kid has an appointment with that doctor they can’t be there. You can’t bring them and if you do you won’t be seen. This is kind of an interesting place to impose such a rule - an Army base where most households are reduced to one parent. I’m going to attempt to use deployed care (which is 2 hours of free daily daycare provided to spouses of deployed soldiers in what I think is an attempt to keep us from losing our minds). However useful, and it is, space is limited and on a walk in base too. My other option was to ask a friend. But truth be told, if my friends are as tired of being with their kids as I am with mine, then adding more kids to the mix is not good. I reserve that for emergencies.
I got my kids into deployed care and the long and short if my illness was a nice sinus infection. However the aches and chills told me something else was going on too.
I spent that night crying as I buckled over the toilet. I felt horrible. But I was more worried about how I was going to take care of my kids in the morning. Or worse, what if they needed me in the middle of the night? How could I tend to them? I could hardly stand up, my stomach was in knots, and my body hurt from heaving.
I wanted my husband. I wanted him here so I knew that it was safe for me to be sick. That he could take care of everything and I could go to pieces. I’ll tell you it is a terrible feeling knowing that you are the caretaker, the “mommy” and you can’t lose it. You can’t get sick and if you do you have to work through it. I needed to be rescued. But my knight in shining armor was pretty far away. This princess prayed that she’d feel better in the morning.
I didn’t feel great. But I was able to get up and do my job as mommy. I didn’t want to at all. I wanted to stay in bed. I wanted to sleep (don’t we all). I needed to sleep more. I really just wanted to let myself be sick so I could let it run its course and be done with it. But that is a luxury that I’m not afforded.
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