Mom Flu

image via tumblr “things we all hate“

The Hubs and I are made from relatively hearty stuff. It is a rare occasion that either of us get sick – well, at least, not sick enough to ground us. We usually take some meds and muddle through.

Last week, however, a bug hit the Hubs. A nasty (blessedly 24-hour only) bug that sent him crawling back to bed first thing in the morning, and basically kept him there for most of the next 24 hours. I washed and Dettol-ed the house – light switches, door knobs, phones, surfaces – in the hopes at keeping the germs at bay.

I’ve never seen him down like that, so I won’t demean it by calling it man flu. It was just a bad bug.

Then I got it.

But I got Mom Flu.

Mom flu is where I get the same bug…but after taking the kids to school, I run to the chemist to get some meds, and then the farmer’s market to get cakes (since I probably shouldn’t be baking, and spreading germs, but my kids needed baked goods the next day for non-uniform day), and then, since I’m out, I pop into the post office as we have a few more cards to mail and I haven’t been able to get there, and well, I’m right there…then drop into the grocery store to pick up something easy to heat up for dinner, since I don’t think I want to cook. When I get home, I’m really ready to crash on the sofa…until I see it is covered in dog hair again…so I go upstairs to grab the vacuum cleaner…and so, you know, while I’m there, I may as well run it…and then the sofa…and then I collapse…

…until about 2, when I realize that I didn’t finish sewing the stockings that the kids need to decorate for school (and that I promised I’d do) which we think are due in the next day…and so I did out my sewing kit (note to self: buy a sewing machine and learn how to use it….). Oh. My.

When I pick up the kids from school, I told them “play quietly, no fighting, Mommy is poorly” which apparently translates to “blah, blah, blahity blah” and they promptly started to knock the crap out of each other. Somehow, Pea earned a hellish rug burn on her face from a tussle they had, the blame for it still somewhat up in the air, and in front of Alfie, our Elf on the Shelf, no less.

When I ask Boo “why he didn’t do this when Daddy was sick”, he flatly replied “Well, Daddy was in bed all day.”

*blinks*

Thankfully, when the Hubs got home he heated up the soup I bought and made grilled cheese sandwiches for them all while I laid half-dead on the sofa, and then hustled them up to bed…and brought me toast.

For which I was eternally grateful, but it left me wondering…

…WHY? Why is it that I can’t just chuck everything and crash on the sofa and feed my fever/starve my flu/whatever you do?

Moms. It’s what we do….