Say it, Spray it, Share it, Just Let it Happen

"Should we justet him lick his brothers face and get it over with?"

Sick kids, that’s what has been my life for a little over two weeks. What is it that makes life so much more difficult when your kids are sick? Say it, don’t spray it, is no longer something I live by when we are sick, and if you want to know why then go ahead and read. If you are the go-getter parent that is going to attempt at keeping everyone else from the ick that is sick in your house, more power to ya, and I salute you. This mama will give her kids everything that they need to help minimize the ick, but I have given up on preventing the inevitable… so my new motto is, “say it, spray it, share it, just let it happen” and my silent prayer of, “please dear Lord, let it happen fast…”

Mid sickness with Hawk, I thought to myself, should I just let him lick his brother's face? Really though, like why prevent the inevitable? Also, him sneezing in my face or wiping his boogers on my shirt hadn’t gotten me sick by that point, so I even did the foolish thing of trying to prevent my own sickness. So silly… it didn’t prevent, instead it prolonged... but maybe it did at least help the inevitable not suck…as much. 

We always try to get outside with our kids, even when they are sick. We never push them, but that ocean air is more than just good for the soul.

We parents will always get sick if our kids are sick… that is just the bummer truth of being a parent of a sick little monkey. However, when the sickness starts with us, I am usually able to prevent these monkey’s from getting it as long as I take precaution. My husband is a different story, that sickness gets spread like wildfire. How do you ask? This is because he is “never sick” just has a sore throat, a cough, or sneezes from his “job” not from someone he came in contact with. Hopefully some, if not all of you can hear the heavily sarcastic tone coming off the screen. This sickness, we don’t suspect came from him this go around. However, this has been the case in other instances. My man cold of a husband bringing the ick of sick into our house. 

So back to my question, should I let Hawk lick his brother's face? I made the executive (most appropraite and acceptable) decision that no, I can not ask my child to lick his brother's face… However, I can just accept what is going to happen no matter what, and stop trying to prevent it. Then, instead of 3 weeks just waiting for it to hit everyone and finally end until we have a new sickness the next month, we are looking at more of just a weekly sentence of ick.

So here’s what I did. Instead of being the chill laid back go with the flow mama… I tried to pick up all pacifiers, sanitize them, and make sure all cups and snacks were not shared. SO SILLY. Seriously, what was I thinking? Hawk was hit with the ick of sick on a Tuesday night, and Bear got hit on a Thursday night. I then got it Saturday night with my husband shortly becoming a fallen soldier on Monday. A whole week it took, just to get it through our house. Now, this lovely Friday, we are going on two weeks. Would it have helped if I just embraced the suck, and let my kid lick our faces? I’m not sure, but in my mind, the sickness could have happened faster. 

Why did I try and prevent this from spreading like wildfire and accepting, versus letting it take its sweet time as I tried too hard to keep the sick away you ask? Oh that’s because our sweet little Bear turned 1 on Friday the 28th of April, and I wanted him to be healthy and gosh dang it if I was going to control the uncontrollable. 

This is beginning to be one of our favorite local parks becuase it is inland enough to get that lovely sunshine, but right on the lake.

Poor little Bear was sick on his 1st birthday and I helplessly wiped his sweet little runny nose while he played on the playground in the beautiful sunshine. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.  Hi, hello reader, meet A type personality... Controlling the uncontrollable is the thing I try the hardest to do. News flash, you can’t control sickness. And I should have learned from Hawk’s 3rd birthday in March that this is the case because I went into that party on antibiotics from a bladder infection. Clearly our family likes to celebrate the big things with a bang, good or bad. 

So going back to what I was doing, trying to keep my youngest away from my oldest in hopes that he didn’t get sick (face palm)… I have decided that the next time the ick of sick comes through our house, I will let the kids breathe on each other, share things the way they always do, and just go with the flow of the things I cannot control. Call me crazy, maybe I am, but preventing sickness in a house with kids really is the most difficult path. In fact singing Jesus Take the Wheel (thanks, Carrie) definitely will be my go to in the future. PS your welcome for getting that stuck in your head, my fellow 90’s babies. 

Full disclosure, I am only a mom speaking from exhaustion and exasperation after two long weeks of my children coughing, sneezing, raspy breathing, sniffly noses, and wanting more cuddles (which I will always take more of) than usual. We are all good parents, trying to do the best for our little monkey babes, so just know, you’re not the only parent that has thought to themselves… should I just let them lick their siblings' faces and get this sickness moving through faster… To the parent that hasn’t thought of that yet, you are a far better person than I am. 

Here’s the thing, this is probably an unpopular opinion, and I am definitely open to suggestions since this mama of a circus is still only on year 3 of being a mom. We are all on a learning curve, so feel free to comment with your hacks as a parent when your kids get sick. Otherwise, I’m going to result in having one kid lick the other and just get the dang thing over with. 

Below you will find another adorable picture, and what our family does for our sick kiddos, because we do take prevention, we do help minimize the sickness, and we do take precaution. 

I strongly recommend not taking your kids to the beach if they have runny noses, otherwise their face is plastered with snotty sand... take it from first hand experience. Lesson learned.

Some items we use in our household to help when our kids get sick are; children’s tylenol, hylands cold tablets both day and night, highlands cough syrup both day and night, pedialyte, elderberry, frozen yogurt tubes, and a humidifier that you can slip Vicks scents inside so that it makes the air not only moist (gross word) but also relaxing to those sore throats and runny noses. We also elevate the kids the best we can while they sleep, take it easy, get air outside, air the house if we can, and stay hydrated. This is probably a weird one, but I have always loved popcorn on a sore throat… it scratches my throat for me… so that’s something I always fall back on.

Thanks for reading and sticking with me through that rant. If you’ve read along before, thanks for being here, friend. If you're new here, welcome and please subscribe if you find my humor or writing funny, or if you want to hear more about a circus of monkey babes run by none other than the ringmaster of controlled chaos. Follow on the socials if you want to see photos of the life I lead, or want to see how we use sensory bins in our household for that lovely independent playtime we parents thrive on (can you say time to clean, cook, or fold laundry? I know it's so convincing). 

Cheers!

Monkey Babes Mama