Moms Don't Get Sick Days!

I learned a very hard lesson this weekend. On Saturday morning at 2 AM I woke up with a fever, headache. dizziness, body aches and phlegmy cough. Awesome! I got up at 6:30, threw up, tried to wake up my husband, and he didn't budge. I wanted him to take my sick kid to the doctor and pick up my ten year old. I then gave two kids medicine, got one kid fed and dressed to take her to the doctor, and drove 40 minutes to pick up my ten year old from a sleepover. Then we went and sat in Urgent Care for two hours. After that we had to go to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. Influenza has invaded our house.

I got home at noon. I spent the day mostly resting. At 2 PM my husband took the boys to get hair cuts so I couldn't sleep. I needed to pay attention to what the girls were doing while he was gone. He was only gone for two hours and he did make all the meals all day, if cereal and mac-n-cheese are considered meals. At least there's that! I took Tamiflu and went to bed at 9:30.

I assumed my husband would put the kids to bed at some point. No such luck. I found out later four of the kids put themselves to bed at midnight. At 2 AM I woke up and my 12 year old was playing a handheld device beside his dad who also was playing a device. WTF??!! I asked my son to please go to bed.

Sunday I woke up feeling a lot better because Tamiflu is a damn miracle! Two more kids woke up sick. Then I saw all the upheaval that took place in my absence the one day I was incapacitated. I gave medicine to all the little sickies and cleaned for two hours. Meanwhile, my husband continued sleeping. Did I mention, I have the damn FLU!!?? Apparently no one really cares.

My question is, why don't moms get sick days? We could be on deaths door but we are still expected to take care of everyone else. If we do take to our beds, we will be paying for it when we wake up the next day, as I found out. When anyone else gets sick, mama is there to comfort, nurture, wait on, medicate, and generally take care of them. She also keeps the place in order as usual all while dealing with little sickies. When mama gets sick, nope, no one is going to take over her role and God forbid if anyone takes care of her. Hell would freeze over before that would ever happen! It is frustrating and just wrong. It makes me wonder what these people would do if I died. The place would go to shit-and fast!