Enough

We just can't seem to catch a break. The kids get sick. Then they get better, but I get sick. Then I feel better, but they get sick--and they are usually considerate enough to stagger their illnesses, in order to maximise the amount of time that we can't do anything outside the house. It goes on and on and on. Now both of the girls are on antibiotics, which I hate to do, but they really need them this time. I worry I'm going to be next. Our doctor is sick of seeing our faces. Tom can't take time off of work to help out because of the state of GM right now. The kids are bloody sick and tired of being cooped up in the house for weeks and weeks on end. But, I can't take them out because they'll infect every other kid they come in contact with, or one will spontaneously combust because she's really not well and needs her rest.

When I worked in a middle school as an interpreter, I was always disgusted with parents who sent their kids to school when they were obviously sick enough to infect everyone around them, not to mention not able to concentrate fully on their schoolwork. It isn't fair to the sick kid or anybody else around them. Now I sort of get it--eventually the kids have to get OUT of the house, or they'll miss a month's worth of schoolwork. That doesn't make it right to infect everybody else around them, but what are they going to do?

I honestly don't know where the perpetual sickness comes from. I make sure they get enough sleep; I feed them a pretty good diet with fruits, veggies, whole grains and lean meat; we do a fair amount of hand-washing in the house. Nobody is in daycare, I have limited contact with people outside of my "Mom" role, and nobody at Tom's work is sick. Sure, we expect to get a bug here and there...but constantly???? It's getting so old, it's all I can do to not sit down and cry every morning.

I shouldn't complain, either. Tom survived all the layoffs of salaried workers and still has a job as of now. He is going to take a pay cut, and the cost of our out-of-pocket healthcare benefits is rising, but he still has a job, and we still have health insurance. We will have to tighten our belts even more, but as long as he has a job, we will survive. We know so many people who have been laid off and are loosing everything. One of the engineers we know of has sent out 70 resumes in the last 6 months...and he has heard nothing from any of them. I should be thankful that we can at least afford to buy medicine to help the kids get better, that we aren't going to foreclose on our mortgage, and that we still have some creature comforts. If I didn't keep those things in mind, I don't know how much more I would able to take of this weather, these horribly crabby, snot-producing children, and being trapped for weeks on end in a house that is rapidly getting too small.

Spring cannot come soon enough.