His and Hers Sick Days

There are quite a few differences between the "sick day" of a stay-at-home-mommy and a hard-working daddy. I probably would never have noticed this had it not been for the nasty cold running through our house this last week.

It started with Parker who has since made a complete recovery, then moved on to me but fortunately I am on the mend, before finally settling in with my poor Honey. My "sick days" were Friday and Saturday before I finally started to feel better again on Sunday afternoon. Honey started to get sick on Sunday and was forced to take Monday off from work (school) as an official "sick day". With these illness occurring back to back, I was afforded the rare opportunity to notice the drastic differences between our "sick days".

Now first we must all agree that when men are sick, they turn into huge babies. This is a simple fact. If this is not true for you then you are still in the newlywed-phase of marriage. So just wait.

Let's start with my sick days. I couldn't breathe. My throat felt like pieces of sandpaper. My head felt like it was stuck in a vice. My ears might as well have been stuffed with cotton. Keeping my eyes open from one minute to the next was proving to be a losing battle. And to top it all off, since I'm pregnant, there is, oh, only one medicine I can cling to with the hopes of eliminating just one of my symptoms.

How did my sick day go? Pretty much like that of any other day. I was responsible for preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the hungry members of my family (lest I hear my love ask me "What's for lunch?" when he was home on Saturday.). I single-handedly wrapped and put away our Christmas decorations into what must have been 45 different totes. (Seriously, do those cherry, colorful decorations multiply between the time I unpack them and the time I put them away?) And I undecorated one 9-foot Christmas tree and helped Honey get that sucker to the curb. All while I was tending to Parker's every need, rotating laundry, washing dishes, and letting Cash in and out. Pretty standard mommy stuff.


The only advantage I did take is that I took a one-hour nap during Parker's afternoon nap on each of my  two sick days.


Ok, because he reads this blog too, I will say that over the weekend Honey took down all of the wreaths from our outside windows, removed the icicle lights from the exterior of our home, and took down all of the garland and bows we had so merrily hung just five weeks earlier. I don't want to imply that he was simply sitting around. But I must note that he was not yet sick.

So there you have a day in the life of this stay-at-home-mommy while she's coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and let's be honest, some slight degree of whining.

But what about Honey? His sick day included sleeping in as late as he wished. Taking a long morning nap. Having his medicines lined up and scheduled out for him by yours truly. Sitting on the couch resting while catching up on sports news, political news, and facebook. He did make his own lunch while Parker slept and I dashed to the store to restock our supplies. As I type this, his sick day is not yet over but I suspect there will be more napping, more internet reading, and more medicines doled out by the wifey.

Now how do I get a sick day like that? I suspect I will find the answer once all of our children are off at college and Honey is sent away on a hunting trip.