Surviving Being Sick

Having sick kids is not fun. You can't do anything for them, and they often have to suffer through whatever ailment they may have. Depending on their age, you'll likely not even know what they're really feeling and going through as they can't speak or they don't have the words to explain it to you. You feel bad for them, and you want to take their pain away, but you simply have to hope that they get better quickly.

While having a sick kid is no fun, being sick yourself is even worse when you have kids. While you may want to take the pain from your kids when they're sick, you don't want to take that sickness on yourself if you don't have anyone to help with your child. Having the flu where you've got a temperature and your stomach is upset is one of the worst ways to spend a day while trying to watch a kid.

Ideally, if you are sick, you have a partner or someone else that you can get your child to for the days that you're sick. This is a situation where it's simply better for your child if they're with someone who doesn't feel like they need to sleep all day long. As long as you're not sick every week, this is one of those times where you should look to neighbors or family to be able to help out with your child.

If you can't find someone to take your child all day, see if you can find someone that will be able to watch your kids for at least a couple of hours. When you're sick, your body needs to be able to sleep. If you're trying to watch a child, it doesn't lend itself to allowing you to get some sleep. Of course, it's not always possible to find someone last minute to watch your child. You may have to spend the day at home with them.

Assuming you're home with your child, you're going to spend the day watching a lot of screens - a lot more screens than you'd normally watch. While watching a lot of TV or looking at tablets all day isn't really ideal for kids, it's also something that you only do when you are sick and need some quiet time where you don't have to chase your child around. You'll have to get over it for a day while you are sick.

While your child is watching whatever you've put on for them, you should be trying to rest or sleep. Your goal is to get as much sleep as possible while you can. Everything else around the house can wait, and you can simply make do without doing anything else. For meals, you simply give your child something basic that will keep them full while not forcing you to spend a bunch of prep time.

When you're sick, you simply won't feel like doing anything at all. You're likely reading this while not sick and thinking that you'll do a bit more than described here, but when it comes to it you won't want to. You'll simply want to lay down and do nothing. Before it happens, make sure you have a basic idea of the minimum you need to do to keep your child safe and happy so that you can rest and sleep as much as you can.

Keep your child safe. Get as much rest as you can. When you're sick, you simply need to survive the day.