Sick Day
Little No Limit joined me on today’s dog walk. It was a happy go lucky walk but like all happy go lucky moments with children, this one came to a magnificent end in the form of a crash onto the sidewalk. Little No Limit was holding onto the leash when Her Name is Rio lunged towards a fence behind which her keen dog senses suspected a ne’er do well was up to something. Down went Little No Limit.
A moment of silence.
Then cries. Shrill, piercing cries. Wails. Tears. You would think someone had taken her dear Fuzzy and de-stuffed him.
Never speak of such horrors!
I hugged. I kissed. I sat and let her to cry it out. Then I said we needed to keep walking if she wanted to go home and put on a bandage. Of course, we just had to be at the halfway mark: 3/4 mile into the walk with 3/4 mile to go.
Off we went, with an added soundtrack of sniffling. Despite my suggestion she pick up the pink “flower power” petals that had fallen from a tree and hold them in her hands so their healing powers could soothe her (I’m big on lying to heal the pain), she continued to sniffle.
We got home and the Old Faithful geyser that is her tear ducts produced an astonishing amount of fresh tears accompanied by an even more astonishing performance of wails and cries – as if this had JUST happened and not three-quarters of a mile ago. This is a girl who knows how to get her father’s attention.
I took on the role of nurse and washed and bandaged her knees, after which Little No Limit wiped her eyes and said, “No school tomorrow.”
Oh, my darling, who do you think you’re fooling?
We all know there are reasons to stay home from school, but scraped knees are not among those reasons unless you scraped them because while rushing to the bathroom to vomit in your flu-and-fever-induced stupor you tripped and scraped your knees.
As it turns out, though, there are a lot of parents out there who aren’t sure when is and is not the appropriate time to keep the kids at home. And being one of the parents who truly believes that kids who receive Perfect Attendance awards probably went to school when they shouldn’t have (because nobody is Bruce Willis in Unbreakable), I’d like to let you know that there are a list of guidelines available to help you determine when to and not to keep your kids at home. Triaminic has a moms webpage and a downloadable PDF regarding Sick Day Guidelines per the National Association of School Nurses (AKA those women who NEVER bought your stomachache excuses). Please read them.
Also, check out Triaminic’s new Cold and Cough thin strips. My kids actually believe that I am the woman on the cover of the box:
P.S. They have an online coupon right now:
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explosive diarrhea is conspicuously missing from their reasons-to-stay-home list!
Little No Limit and the Tongginator would either be the Best of Friends or the Worst of Enemies. And I think it would depend on the day.
Loved your interview on Scribbit! Congratulations on finding an agent, well done you.
I also think that a perfect attendance record isn’t necessarily a good sign. Around here I have to go with my gut [plus a thermometer!] I often get it wrong, keep them home and then they’re bouncing off the walls two seconds later but that kind of a mistake has much more serious consequences here since nobody really wants to go to school.
Best wishes
It is such a fine line to walk . . . having appropriate sympathy, and knowing when to teach kids to “tough it out.” What a cute story though! It reminds me of one my mother-in-law tells of when my husband was little and didn’t want to put his luggage away after a 2 hour flight, and he gave “jet lag” (complete with full-on dramatization of how tired he was) as the excuse.
Your daughter’s “No school tomorrow” cracked me up. My kids would absolutely have tried that when they were her age.
Way back when, I would have loved information like this: I mainly kept my kids at home when their temperatures went over 100 or they had disfiguring rashes or noses that ran like streams. Being a hard ass did not pay off, though: I’ve got kids who think they ought to be allowed to skip when they have their periods. Not even my sternest feminist lectures will move them, either.