Sick Days

I wanted to start with, "Well, if there was one thing I've learned about being a mom," but there are oh so many things I've learned about being a mom, that this one thing doesn't seem to be the perfect ONE. Instead, I think I'll start by saying, it's tough to balance my "outiside" life with my "mom life".

Sami has been battling a fever for approximately 4 days. It would come, I'd give the usual Tylenol dosage, it would go. She wouldn't be her normal self, but instead this sort of shell of a kid with these really sad blue eyes that kept looking at me like, "Mom, I don't feel right." Last night was the last straw.

Bless his heart, Greg is usually the parent to get up with Sami. Not because I don't want to, but more because I end up getting up with Becca. Anyway, poor Greg was up, out of bed, about 4 times between midnight and 4 am, when Sami decided she just wouldn't go back to sleep. She would say things like, "I'm thirsty", "I'm hot", and once she complained that her ear hurt. Daddy, had had enough. He was super upset and exhausted himself, so she ended up crawling into bed with me (and Becca) when he got ready for work. At approximately 5:30am, she was lying on the couch whining about something. I sat down next to her, and pulled her close, as I did this, she screamed bloody-murder about her ear. I then decided we would go to the pediatrician today. I then made the call to my supervisor that I couldn't make it in.

This is where my "outside life" intersects with my "mom life". Now, I admit that I'd really like to do it all. Stay at home, work from home, clean, and care for my kids all the time. However, that's not possible at this moment. I have to work. Period. What's so hard is that I feel guilty for having to call into work and take the day off because my child is sick. Personally, I hardly ever get sick. My kids however, get sick. I know that in my head, but it's still hard to have to call into my job and say that I can't come in because my child is sick. I don't know why I feel guilty, but I do. Maybe it's because I want to be Superwoman and have the ability to do it all?

Why is it that as mothers we are expected to do it all? And why do I feel guilty that I can't?! Sami will be ok. She is on some antibiotics for her ear infection, and will be feeling back to her sassy self tomorrow.