At Home With A Sick Child

At home Wednesday with a sick child I started thinking about how it was when I was his age and sick. Being home sick at my house was like prison.

My son sat and watched movies in his bed all day Wednesday after a diagnosis of strands A & B of the flu on Tuesday. Movies… all day! What child at this point doesn’t love the flu?!

When my brother and I were growing up in the 80s and would get sick, mom got real. We were too sick to go to school then we were too sick to do anything else! We were to lie in our beds, no TV, no music, no nothing but medicine and covers and pillows.

Fake sick? Nope. It was no fun to be sick when I was growing up. We went to the doctor a lot more too. We had a doctor my brother and I jokingly called “Dr. Penicillin” due to the fact that every time we went, we got a shot of penicillin. It didn’t matter the ache or pain, he’d call to his nurse, also his wife, “Penicillin!” We feared getting sick.

My son got antibiotics and cough syrup and an all day pass to watch movies. Was it because I never could when I was sick? Am I alone? Do other parents follow my mother’s lead and make their child stay in bed with no connection to anything remotely fun?

Obviously, I understand that certain sicknesses require different actions like a child with the flu needs rest when a child with a stomach ache might not.  Am I just bitter?