Stupid sick kids. They ruin everything! Or at least give me high blood pressure. When does parenting get easy?
I thought with three away at college, I’d be mostly home free. My 15-year-old is fairly self-reliant and usually so busy with school and dance that I don’t see much of her. But she caught a nasty bug this past week and sent everything into turmoil.
For starters, the nurse practitioner declared her ickyness to be viral, which meant no quick antibiotic fix. I was pulling for strep when I dragged her to Minute Clinic on the third day of 103-degree-plus temperatures, but no such luck. We left with instructions to treat symptoms and to prepare for potentially 10 more days of lethargy, body aches, fever and sore throat. Obviously, school was out, but I didn’t want to take off work to watch her. So, after maybe seven seconds of contemplation, I decided she’d be fine on her own. What’s the worst that could happen? I mean, if its bubonic plague, there’s nothing I can do anyway. Good luck, little lady! Don’t you go dying on me! Yeah, Mom of the Year right here.
And I was actually more stressed about the amount of classes she was missing. Five-days’ worth could seriously derail her quest to beat her siblings for highest GPA, not to mention send her into a whirlwind of anxiety about catching up — a true nightmare for me as a mother.
It’s hard when your baby is sick and you can’t do a darn thing to make her better. I guess I just assumed once I was down to one, parenting would be easy. Friends, I was wrong.
Peace out.
