I’ve only had a few hours sleep and I’m so tired I can barely see the screen this morning. I don’t have a newborn, and I didn’t stay up too late last night. It’s just that the kids are sick. It’s nothing major – just one of those winter bugs that is par for the course as the cooler weather sets in. But it only takes a minor illness to upset things.
My little man has a runny nose and watery eyes and is just not quite himself. We usually say good night and shut the door, but he took hours to settle last night. My big girl is sneezing continuously and is all stuffy in the head. She went to sleep fine, but woke around 2am and just couldn’t resettle. Sigh.
Of course it’s highly likely they’ll both wake up today sunny and smiling. The one who’ll be left grouchy and grizzly is me! Fingers, toes and everything else crossed that I don’t come down with it next myself. Sadly there are no sick days for stay-at-home-mums. That is definitely one of the downsides of the job!
I’m sure I wasn’t alone last night as I tucked my daughter back into bed at 3am for the umpteenth time. Mothers are on call 24-7. I know there are mums who would have had a rougher night than me too. With winter bugs come other complications for our little ones.
Maybe a few doors down from me a mother was up in the wee hours trying to reduce her child’s fever. Maybe in a sleep deprived state she was trying to remember how many hours it had been since she gave her little one paracetamol, and fumbling around in the dark trying to get a reading on thermometer. I’ve been there many nights.
Maybe across the street a mother was kept awake by a croupy cough. Maybe she tried every rumoured remedy to help her child find relief, and perhaps she had to fight her own rising panic in order to help keep her child calm. Yes, I’ve been there too.
Maybe a suburb away a mother’s instinct told her to get her child to hospital. Maybe she had to work out who would stay with her other children while she threw on some clothes and raced to the children’s emergency department. Maybe the knowledge that something was desperately wrong with her baby threatened to consume her. Maybe she sat by a hospital crib last night and prayed. Thankfully I haven’t been there myself, but I know mothers who have.
Thinking about those other mothers makes me feel a lot less sorry for myself this morning. It also reminds me to cut other mums some slack. It’s so terribly easy to judge each other. Today if I hear a mum who is short with her kids, or snappy to another parent, or impatient at the checkout, or oblivious to what her child is showing her - I’m just going to assume she had a sleepless night. I hope she’ll do the same for me.
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Catherine Oehlman is a SAHM currently being raised by a terrific toddler and a curious crawler. Her background in primary education, love of the mothering journey and compulsion for writing collide on her SquiggleMum blog. Cath encourages other parents from all walks of life to maximise the time they spend with their children.
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Monday, 10 May 2010
Tuesday, 11 May 2010