After lunch, a call comes in from the school nurse. Lars has a headache he describes as "large" and it hasn't been alleviated by the soothing pictures or waterfall music the nurse has been applying. I talk to him on the phone. "Hey there, Little, you don't feel good?"
His small voice responds, "No. I have a headache. A large one." He sounds more sad than in pain, so I ask him if something happened that hurt his head but he says no, it was just all the noise at lunch. Suspecting there might be more psychological than physical pain, I ask if he thinks he'll be ok to skate practice tonight. He hesitates, "I, ...I don't know. I think I can skate." I remind him that if he comes home from school sick, he can't go to practice and he decides to give the afternoon at school another try.
A couple of hours pass. The small worry that I'd been harboring for Lars since the call is gone when the phone rings again. Lars is really sick. So sick that he can't be put on the school bus; can we come get him? Chris heads to the school and returns with a limp boy who has no interest in standing up, let alone skating. Calibrated Mama lips determine he has a little fever so we get him some Tylenol and bundle him into blankets on the couch. I wonder how awful he was feeling when I coaxed him into staying at school after lunch?
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9 comments:
You deserve a point just to assuage your guilt. It always helps me, I know. Seriously, though, I used to feign illness nearly daily to avoid school at his age - how's a mama to know?
Oh, if I had a dollar...
Okay, maybe I would need 100 bucks for each time I sent my kid to school sick, to actually make me wealthy, but even at a dollar I could go out to dinner or something.
Poor Brandon was a bit of a hypochondriac and I am about as unsympathetic a mom as you get, so once or twice a year I would ignore his complaining of illness (because he always was) and send him to school only to pick him up later because he threw up or spiked a fever.
Even Allie who is almost never sick has fallen victim to my "Oh, I'm sure you'll feel better, soon" Or "You know if you stay home, you will miss blah, blah, blah tonight" just to later result in an uncomfortable encounter with a school nurse.
Sympathetic nursemaid is NOT my strong point as a mother, but I guess that wouldn't be much a surprise coming from the reigning WME!
Oh, and I have been wanting to say that I cede December to Paige. She deserves it for pushing out that gorgeous rolly polly boy. Although I am pretty proud of myself for being able to earn TEN WME points in a month without giving birth.
I also think she seems to be doing a wonderful job so far and will offer me no real competition in the future. ~wink~
Lars is the kid who wakes up, discovers he's going to puke, and cries because it means he can't go to school that day. The kid who didn't cry when he opened his head with the radiator. The kid with a matchstick sized splinter in his hand that "you can take out later, Mama, after we're done playing hockey." After seven years, you'd think I might know that Lars is REALLY uncomfortable if he's made it to the nurse!
In contrast, Ross is the kid who gets a papercut and requires three months to recover.
OK, this comments section is really funny too! Our 4yr old daughter feels she has many "serious injuries" daily. Rather like RainMan and his journal of Serious Injuries.
When I took her in for a hospital exam when she was placed with us, the nurse asked her if she had any owies. She said, "I have bruises all over my whole body." They couldn't find anything on her except a toenail that looked weird.
I'm guilty too of sending my children to school, all the while they say they don't feel well. My policy is: "If you are puking, have diarrhea, or have a fever, you may stay home."
My kids have been known to go to school saying "I don't feel well" and I give them the Buck Up speech. Then I feel like a jerk when the school nurse calls saying they threw up..........
I think most parents would have done the same thing. Don't beat yourself up.
I have even sent mine off with the dose of Tylenol right before to see how long they can stay in school before I get called to pick'em up because the fever spiked again...but I would second KNS +1 point for the guilt...especially knowing Lars does not cry wolf...
http://www.lareau.org/grave1.gif
Remember I sent Sister Kat off to Girl Scout Camp with thrush and told her not to show anyone her mouth (*she was 8). You're a chip off the old block. Congrats!
I third the awarding of the point.
When I was a child, we needed to have a temp of 112 or be vommiting to stay home from school. Even a severed limb probably would have warranted a fix with the staple gun and a "Have a good day at school." I plan to adopt these policies myself when my children are in school.
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