Sick or not, that is the question

When it comes to my girls, one of my sarcastic statements has always been, unless your arm is hanging off or you threw up all over the school building, I don't want to hear about it. How dare I say that?! Of course that sounds beyond cruel and of course I do not ignore their illnesses or injuries when they're legitimate, in fact I probably baby them more than I should when they are actually sick or injured but I would guess every mom out there knows when their kid is "really" sick or "kinda" sick.

It's the times where you really don't know and have to guess. The moment where you have to make the call, they stay home or they get up and go kind of situation. For instance, a couple weeks ago my 7 year old acts weird for a whole evening, definitely not her perky self, and is sorta warm to the touch. I put her to bed that night thinking for sure in the morning she'll be sick. Early the next morning I go in her room, feel her head and ask her if she's okay. She groggily says, "no" so I tell her to go back to sleep. It just became an official sick day. I make a bunch of calls, rearrange my day and start my bets on what will be wrong with her, strep, flu, scarlet fever, etc.?? Then all the regular thoughts go through my mind like, "Is she gonna give this to her sisters? Do we have anything going on this week that we can't miss? Do I have enough fever medicine left from the last bout?"

An hour later she schleps herself downstairs with her blankie and plops on the couch. Instantly I'm questioning as I stare at her tired face, if she was truly sick, she'd probably still be sleeping if she was truly sick, not up at 8am. I take her temperature, which waivers between 98.7 and 99 degrees, then examine her eyes a little closer, thinking the whole time, I don't think she's sick. When I ask her, she tells me her stomach and head hurts. Oh, okay, well you don't have to have a fever to have the stomach bug, maybe that's what it is? So, I go ahead and I get her a pillow and trash can and settle her in on the couch in front of the tv.

Thirty minutes later she yells, "Mom!" Immediately I think she's gonna throw up or something so I rush to the living room. Instead she looks up and asks, "Can I have some breakfast?" Breakfast?! "I thought you're stomach hurt," I asked. Usually when a person is struggling with the stomach bug, breakfast is the LAST thing they ask for. Oh well, I play along for now, although my doubts of her supposed illness are growing. I give her a banana and a piece of toast and thought we'd see how that went. I gave her the speech that if she her stomach is sick, she'll need to eat only bland stuff all day. No chips or pop or candy for sure! Which didn't faze her, the girl who loves noodles and rice.

All I know is the breakfast must have cured her of her ailments, because after her favorite show ended, she was walking around asking to get toys out and play Play Dough to which I had to remind her that when a person is sick they have the choice of either laying on the couch or the bed, but no playing. After a whole day of her asking and me reminding her of the sick day rules, she finally confessed that maybe she was just really tired and needed a "rest" day instead of actually being sick. Something I'd already obviously figured out on my own. Oh well, I took advantage of the day at home and although it wasn't a "rest" day for me, at least were both a little more caught up!