The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

I’m hibernating next winter. Seriously. I really don’t want to experience another 6 months like the last. I’m not talking about the freakishly cold weather we’ve had here in England. (While the winter Olympic organizers were tearing their hair out trying to work out how to truck enough white stuff onto Cypress Mountain for the snowboard cross we were trudging to school in 2 feet of snow, if school was open that was). No, I’m talking about the constant illness that’s plagued our family since September. I’ve never been so pathetically ill. Not in childhood; not in the days when my immune system was compromised by lack of sleep from 4 nights a week pubbing and clubbing. I’ve always been fairly healthy. Until now. Until we moved back to England from Canada. Until my five-year-old started school.

I didn’t log it but I honestly think there have been more days with someone sick than everyone well. It started back in September with me getting chicken pox. Chicken pox? I had them as a child; my kids were both vaccinated when we were in Canada. But my daughter had only been in school about a week when I broke out in spots. This was followed by an endless stream of colds, coughs and flu. No one could shake “The Cough”. My daughter and hub both had it for almost 3 months. The doctor told us that was to be expected from a post viral cough. At Christmas we kindly passed “The Cough” onto my mum and she has only just shaken it off. Then there was the fortnight of Hand, Foot and Mouth – supposedly a childhood illness, but hub also managed to contract that from the kids. Moving into February the dreaded stomach flu hit us. Everyone was well for a grand total of 3 days before my 5-year-old came down with a fever, closely followed by my 2-year-old for whom it escalated into a double ear infection and a non specific illness that lasted 10 days. It all results in me getting so little sleep it’s impossible to tell whether I’m coming down with the latest virus or I’m just sleep deprived. My stomach is in knots from worry and my head heavy and fuzzy from lack of sleep.

Sure, as a child I had the kid illnesses of the day – chicken pox, mumps, German measles and my mum had annual flu – I remember because it was the only time my dad cooked and he once famously served up the most disgusting veg ever – frozen Brussels sprouts. But we never caught her flu and we didn’t have constant coughs and runny noses like my kids do.

I realize there are some unfortunate moms out there with a lot more serious things to deal with than seasonal ailments and I apologize to them for my whining, but I felt the need to vent and ask, “What’s going on?” Is it just a phase the family must work through? “Maybe you’re getting used to the British bugs” suggested our GP when I quizzed her 2 months into “The cough”. Is it because, as one friend put it, we now “share the germs with the masses” since my daughter started school? Is it because the odds are raised; 2 kids = double the kid-germs invading the house = double the time incubating, suffering and recovering from illnesses. If so how the heck does Kate Gosselin cope? How the heck does the Duggar family cope? With 19 children there can’t be a single healthy day in their household.

It doesn’t seem to be just me – look any day in the Twitter mommy feed and all you see are Tweets on puke, poo, snot, coughs, strep…. is the world a sicker place in 2010 than it was in 1970? I find it seriously worrying. It’s like we’re is in the grips of plague and pestilence.

So, who’s joining me for hibernation 2010/11. I’m open to cave mates. Any takers?

Filed under: Parenting Tagged: | childhood illness, cold, cough, Family, flu, illness, Motherhood, new mom dilema, Parenting