Today I am owning it.
So while I was tap tap tapping away, writing my Tuesday post about how I’m not a super single mum, good old Reality was gleefully rubbing her hands together in a Rumplestiltskinesque way and preparing me a nice warm dish of How do you like them apples baby?.
Yummmm.
“Stewed” I said. “Nice and stewed”.
“My favourite”.
And she took me seriously.
On Wednesday she presented me with a sickly little boy. If single parenting is so easy then here’s the next level sunshine. Oh and have that with a side of gee you also have some tummy queasiness.
“Thank you darling”, I exclaimed.
Actually, my little ray of sunshine was on and off sick all day. It didn’t seem that serious, no temps, still eating and perky moments so I figured by nap time that we were over the worst of it. He would reset and everything would be fine. No problemo.
But it didn’t happen like that. Of course.
He woke from his nap crying and with a raging fever. I’d actually been sleeping the whole of nap time too as after lunch (a super healthy home cooked one too) my queasiness kicked up a notch and brought along some severe stomach pains. We probably had the same bug truth be told.
I took the little monkey into my room with me and he was listless as anything. He wouldn’t let me take his temp or give him medicine. By this time it was 4pm and our local Dr was shutting down for the day. I rang one of those after hours medical assistance lines to see what we should do. Hospital? Wait it out until tomorrow? Or find an after hours Dr service? The vote was after hours Dr service so I set off for that. I managed to get him to take a little dose of Panadol right before leaving.
Well I should have listened to him when he said no to Panadol as less than 2 mins down the road he chucked up the entire contents of his stomach for that day. If anyone has ever had their kid throw up behind them in the car they will know how awful it is. There is nothing you can really do and they are a combination of bewildered and distressed.
(Although after he was done Monkey got all perky and just kept telling me I did a big burp mummy and it all came out. Bless)
We turned around and came home to clean up before heading back to the Dr. It is hot summer weather here at the moment. Vomit in the car is going to stink if you don’t get it out ASAP.
And at that moment, right at that moment, I would have been grateful for someone else here to help out. To clean the car seat or the child, or rinse the vomit ridden clothes out. Something would have been good. But when I looked at the time it was only 4:30pm and I thought pull your head in Rachael, most hubbies wouldn’t be home from work by now. Single mum or not this is the way things would be for most women.
BUT eventually hubby would be home. He would possibly have been able to leave work early to help out, bring home dinner or make it, get some of the urgent groceries I missed that day like the nappies I was almost out of, sort out some of the vomit stuff, tidy toys, wash dishes…any number of things really. And that’s the difference between being on your own and having someone around. My fictional husband is just that, fictional, so there is no one here to fall back on for the little extras.
But that’s OK with me.
It’s life. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard and that’s OK. And it’s silly to compare on how it would be if things were different. Or what the Jones’ are doing down the street as let me tell you, no one knows what’s going on behind their closed doors except them.
One of my followers left a great comment on my recent single parenting post that said this:
A mum of three, one with sever physical disabilities, recently said that there is no point in comparing “how tough” one has it though, as if somebody feels that something is tough, it is, even though it from the outside seems less tough than what others cope with. A parent just does, what needs to be done, and as parents we can try to support each other to make it easier on all of us, and that is life.
I love this comment.
Tough days are tough days. And it’s OK if my tough day isn’t as hard as your tough day. It’s still tough. And I’m allowed to feel like a super mum for getting through it. So I’m going to own it.
Yesterday was a hard day. And me, I, I totally rocked it. I was a super mum.
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I post Tuesdays and Thursdays with the occasional bonus post to keep you all on your toes. Stop by and say hello. I love hearing from you.
