The Verdict

This Summer when Kevin was sick I started thinking about the hierarchy of sickness if my life. OK, not really a hierarchy, just the order of difficulty for myself. At the time I was pretty sure having a sick husband was harder than having a sick kid. Alena was sick last week confirming my beliefs. Although Kevin was less demanding as a patient, Alena was less helpful as an assistant, not for lack of trying of course. Then I was sick this week. Being sick as the mom is at least 3 times as difficult as being the mom taking care of a sick someone else. This isn't because there is no one to help me. Alena has been an angel fetching things for me and thinking of things herself to bring me. ("Mommy, here's a cuddow-wy guy, and you can cuddow with him on your piwow.") And Kevin came home yesterday and took care of me like the sweet man that he is. The difficulty is mostly due to the fact that the children are hungry and bored, because I feel too crummy to feed them well and entertain them, and I can't invite other children to entertain them because I don't want to get them sick. So, next time I get sick I'll spend the day before setting up a spread of healthy snacks where the children and reach them and invent some sort of robot that can play with them. Then I'll spend the three days after being sick cleaning up the destruction that sort of set-up will cause.