Still sick

Went to work yesterday, but halfway through the day our office manager looked at me and said, "Honey, you have a fever. Take these ibuprofen." And he handed me the pills and a glass of water. This morning it's morphed into your standard hacking chest cough, sore throat (thank goodness my conference call was yesterday), and light-headedness. So I can't tackle anyone else's problems yet, but I'm fairly certain I'll recover at some point.

However, I'd be happy to relate this conversation from my office on Monday. Everyone in the office is a man except me.

Coworker S (who has a 5-year-old and an almost 2-year-old): The baby isn't sleeping. He's waking up more than he was before. We're totally fried.

Boss (who has an almost 2-year-old and two school-age kids): It'll get better. You know it'll get better.

Me: It'll totally get better. Someday he'll go off to college and it'll definitely be better then.

Coworker R (who has a 14-month-old): When he's away at college you can call him at 3 am to tell him your teeth hurt.

Coworker S, laughing: I think I'll call him every half hour throughout the night and tell him I want a drink.

And then we all laughed a bitter, hollow kind of laugh.

Anyone else want to tell a story for "Overheard About Parenting"?

Comments

[Christi]

No additional conversations to report, just a thank you. I'm still smiling. Perspective is a valuable thing.

*hugs* Feel better soon.

[Jana (sidetrack'd)]

That conversation is too funny! Hope you feel better soon.

[Kateri]

I am totally going to call Naomi at college every half hour to tell her I need a drink. That's too funny!

[beth]

Sending you warm fuzzies and an imaginary neck and shoulder rub with lavender infused body butter ... take a deep breath, imagine the soothing scent and that this will only last a day or so more.. hopefully.

[jessica]

That was a most brilliant conversation, thanks for sharing.

Um, I don't have a parenting conversation, but I had a wonderful talk in the restroom a few weeks ago discussing whether it was, by default, the male co-worker's responsibility to tell his friend his zipper is down or the female co-worker's responsibility.

I hope you feel better very fast. This nasty humidity can't be helping.

[Andrea]

I had a similar conversation just 2 days ago, only I was the one with the baby not sleeping and there were only two people involved. :) Otherwise it was almost word for word, including the part about calling them in the middle of the night!

I hope you feel better soon. We just went through a round of summer colds here.

[pnuts mama]

i'm thinking the best time to crank call my kid in college will start at around 6:25 am on a sunday morning and will be repeated every 47 minutes or so...

***

just wanted to make sure everyone has seen the giant recall from fisher price?
this link takes you to the page with a picture list of affected toys:
http://service.mattel.com/us/recall/39054_IVR.asp?prod=
it is mostly sesame street/dora toys sold *after* may 2007- to the present. you can scroll through the list, check your toys and submit an email to mattel to get information on how to send the toys back and get a voucher (only good for non-licensed toys, btw, cause, you know, *that's* fair) for a new toy.

super.

[AmyinMotown]

I have no good overhead conversations--however, I am SO calling her at college. EARLY. And, if she's anything like her parents were in college, talking VERY LOUD. "Oh, sorry, do you have a headache, sweetie? Why ever is that?"

My query is this: WTF is wrong with American business when a co-worker's follow up to "You have a fever" is not "Go home" but "Take these ibuprofen?"

[Dawn]

Um, this might seem weird, but you might try a steam inhalation with eucalyptus oil - basically, you boil a pot of water, add a few drops of eucalyptus oil and then put your head over the steaming pot with a towel over your head. My doctor had me do it the last time I was sick (the winning combination of bronchitis and a sinus infection) and it was pretty helpful.

No good conversations to report, sorry.

[Karin]

My 7-month old is going through her first cold at the moment, complete with rivers of green streaming snot. Lovely. Today I overheard myself (ahem) saying to my mum, as I looked down at my feeding daughter:
"I guess you know you're a parent when your nipples are covered in snot and you don't even care." Yummy mummy indeed.

[Nell]

Overheard while I was waiting for the bus.
A man and his six or seven year old daughter were going into a toy store, and the father said, "I deal with it by reaching into the fridge for a nice cold beer. But you don't have any way of dealing with it."
I would love to know the context, and I hope he bought her a toy!

[enu]

Hope you're feeling much better today.

Youse guys may not want to disturb your college age child's sleep once you've paid the first semester's tuition, and realize the financial risk that a freshman made groggy by parental calls may cause.

But there are other ways to get 'em back. Be creative ;-)

[hedra]

Yeah, you can always just wish the same on them. It is pretty likely to come true, given that kids are just like that, LOL!

My favorite bit of parenting conversation (which was fabo advice, too), came when I was pregnant with my first. A random co-worker (never saw him again!) was chatting in the hall with a new dad, and he gave two bits of advice:

1) get a rocker-recliner, so you can sleep semi-upright when they're congested and can't sleep in any other position than against your shoulder.

2) Give up on being perfect. Aim for them being able to afford their therapy bills as adults, and don't sweat anything more than that - you've succeeded pretty well if their therapy is affordable! There's NO way to be perfect, give up trying NOW, and save yourself some angst.

I still use the 'therapy bills' thing. I'll say to myself 'yeah, that's going to end up in therapy - but only a couple of sessions, right?'

[angela]

Years ago, I overheard a mom say to her 5-year old son as they were crossing the street...

Now, honey, you have to stay in the crosswalk. That way, if we get hit by a car, we can sue!

[Diane]

So THAT'S why my mom called me all the time in college! Hope you're feeling better now.

[Amber]

Check out this blog post: http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001818.html
Couldn't be more true.