I’m living in a freaking petri dish. Yesterday, at the doctor’s office, he was positively gleeful when talking about new parents and their illnesses. He even had the gall to say to me see you next week.
This week it’s fever and a cough which overnight turned into a cold. (It came on exactly two weeks after I spent twenty-four hours puking.) I feel gross. So far no one else has it and I totally blame the little girl in our music class who wouldn’t stop sitting in my lap earlier this week. Actually, I don’t blame her, I blame her freaking mother. The little girl (no more than 2 – probably more like 18 months) was obviously attracted by the baby, but she wouldn’t stay away from us. She kept trying to sit in my lap, whereby sitting ON Meli and I kept trying to deflect without seeming mean. And she must have sneezed on us a million times. I totally threw myself in front of the sneezes as much as I could. After class I wiped Meli down in hopes of sparing her.
Where was the girl’s mother you ask? On the other side of the room. Sure, once or twice she came over to collect her daughter, but mostly she just let her roam. I’m all for the kids walking around and dancing and socializing – it’s encouraged and expected. But when you see your kid bordering on harassment – and in the case of my baby – possibly doing harm – GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO SOMETHING. If your little girl’s not going to sit down (which is FINE) then it’s your responsibility to get up and walk WITH HER.
In other news, slowly I’ve managed to knit enough on my sweater where it’s time to split for the back and the fronts. Not sure how that happened. Guess those at least two rows a day turned into lots. Last night I took out the pattern and remeasured my swatch and it’s not as perfect as it was the first time, but I’m going to ignore that. Also the idea that I had to do math made my fever come back and my head ache even more. I hate math.
One of these days I’ll take a picture. Right now I just want to feel better.
I hope you feel better. When my son was young I would obsess over making sure he wasn’t a nuisance to anyone. It’s simply not right to make your child someone else’s problem.
Oh, dear. I hope you feel better soon. It’s bad enough being sick, but it really sucks to be sick when you have to take care of a little one and you can’t just sleep it off. Sending you good thoughts.
That sucks! I am totally for parents keeping their children home while they’re contagious. If they’re only on the tail end of a cold, fine, but if your child is clearly SICK, not just sick, STAY HOME! I could have kissed the parent of a child in my class who called last month saying that her son was still sniffling so she was keeping him home to make sure he didn’t pass it on.
Oh yeah, we here know what you’re going through. Both kids are in day care and we just can’t shake this germ that’s going around. It stinks!
I hope you start feeling better soon! I’m impressed you are still knitting while feeling sick! Congrats 🙂 Can’t wait to see the knitting in progress!
I think that’s when you take the little girl by the hand and forcibly return her to her mother. Ugh. Other children’s parents, I just don’t know.
I know how you feel. My little cousin wanted to be my best friend on Sunday and since Monday I have been sick…ugh
I know where you’re coming from. My 2yo is in daycare, and it is just a giant petri dish. I’ve had 2 colds + stomach flu already this month. On the plus side it makes you really appreciate feeling healthy (provided you actually get a short break between colds) and I have been reassured by other parents that it ends eventually. And somehow none of this helps at all when I’m actually sick…then I just whine and complain and feel miserable and wax eloquent about how I will never ever be healthy again. Good luck.
That sucks, Cara. I hope you feel better soon!!
Feel better!! Sorry about other mothers…unfortunately you’ll find yourself finding more and more parents who definitely don’t abide by the parenting “rules” that the rest of us do.
Have you thought about having the instructor have a word with the class? Especially about STAYING HOME if your child is nursing a cold! I took about 3 years worth of Music Together classes when my babies were little, and the teachers were always happy to remind the moms that it benefits everyone if you stay home when your child is not well.
I’m also all for being incredibly direct with the parent. Get up, take the child by the hand, walk across the room and return the child. No words, but it makes a big statement. If you need words, how about, “My lap is already full today.”
Hope you feel better soon.
Ugh, parents who don’t parent are on my list of pet peeves. Especially if that child happens to be sick. I would have been merely annoying had the little girl just wanted to see Meli and not leave the two of you alone. Throw in gross sneezes, and I probably would have called out her mother in public.
Yuck, my son had his first ear infection at just two weeks old, courtesy of a friend’s germy daughter who “just loved babies”! I wish I’d been confident enough to tell her to keep her daughter away.
Feel better!
I would love to see a pic of your sweater 😉
Completely sympathetic — to both the illness and the child management issues. Z’s nanny watches other children during the week, so we get the benefit of passive transfer every now and then — I’ve had 4 different colds since the fall. Fortunately, Z seems more robust to them than I am.
Totally with you on the child control issues as well. Z is a very active, curious toddler, and it can be an effort to keep her away from things she is really interested in, but I would never (on purpose) let her get close to another child if I knew she wasn’t feeling well. That’s just bad karma, I think.
Yeah, when Cam was that age, we called him our little vector. It has gotten better for all of us, though…hopefully it will for you, too!
Healing thoughts are coming your way. My accountant swears by tawaka alcohol. She says a couple of good glugs are great for what ails you! After the Baby goes to sleep though.
Nat Alea from OK
Hope you’re feeling better soon. and congrats on the knitting. One thing motherhood has forced upon me is grabbing those little bits of time for fractions of accomplishment… have 2 extra minutes? clean the sink and the rest of the bathroom can wait. kid happily playing with trains but you know it won’t last? knit one row.
Yick, the ick. I hope you feel better. And I hope that next time, you too can be a Heartless Bitch – take the next little sneezy thing straight over to her madre, look her in the eye, and say, please keep your daughter from disturbing me.
Oh man, the “other mothers” are always such a pain in the ass, it gets worse as the kids start socializing..
I know exactly what your going through. My baby is in daycare and I feel like, no I have been sick since October. We are finally feeling healthy again and I hope to keep it that way. I hope you feel better.
I call that the “Now, Honey” school of parenting. When the parents sits on their butt and languidly calls out “Now, honey”, as their child does any number of obnoxious/disruptive/dangerous things. I remember Holly, who used to carry around her cat by the neck. “Now, Holly, remember we talked about that…” Fer crying out loud, Holly is TWO and does not REASON! She needs clear boundaries! Do NOT hold Kitty by the neck! Put Kitty down!
(That was actually way back when I was in college, Holly being the child of terminally stoned musician friends of my now-husband’s.)
Anyway, although your own child will give you plenty of viruses (the only time I’ve ever had influenza, my daughter brought it home from preschool), it’s particularly egregious when “Now, honey” aligns with nasty bugs. Grrrr.
Take care, hopefully someone nice can take care of YOU this weekend, and get better soon! Hope Meli doesn’t get it….
P.S. Sorry to tell you what your doctor was hinting at, but as a baseline, the average kid gets 12 viruses a year through early grade school. By later school years, it slows down to 6 a year.
Best thing you can do is wash your hands like a maniac at home, and use that alcohol hand gel in public (and at home if it’s easier than washing; but it tastes bad if you have to do anything with fingers and Meli’s mouth). Most viruses are spread via your hands (then to eyes/nose for colds/flu).
i used to work at a group care center, in the infant room. one mother used to call her baby, lovingly, My Little Germ Bag– the babies father said he had never sick so frequently until the baby was born. Of course, group care has lots of germs.
and as to parents not paying attention to their kid-lits, I can’t believe how many parents talk on their cell phones while they are at the park with their kids. they just follow them around mindlessly, chatting away.
It’s a tad painful to read curmudgeonly comments about other people’s kids. It’s been my experience as a mother that for every irksome feeling I’ve ever had about another person’s parenting, the feelings are usually mutual. There are no perfect days in parenthood for anybody, is all.
Having said that, I do hope you feel better soon.
This will make you feel better:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074sjm/BBC_Four_Sessions_Bruce_Springsteen/
Forgot to say though, watch it soon, they don’t leave stuff on there for long.
oh no!!! it’s that time of year 🙁 hope you all get better soon! lots of vitamin C!
Sorry to hear it. I hate that too, watching you baby suffer and thinking: you did this to us! I am cheered by the New York Times article on dirt and babies (see most emailed) which announces again that a busy immune system is an immune system that won’t turn on itself. Children in bigger families have way less auto-immune disorders because they get sick more when they’re littler. So the suffering real has a benefit at the end of the day. Less MS, less IBD, fewer allergies. I keep that in mind as I spend another sleepless night with my 6 month old.
I’m sorry you’re sick…but I hope you’re watching the halftime show…HE’LL make you feel better!!
Welcome to the wonderful world of irresponsible parenting. You will be the parent dealing with your child in a responsible manner (part of a very small minority); the rest of the parents will look at you as if you are some kind of alien. Hope you feel better soon!