The thing that keeps me up at night, apart from my child refusing to sleep, is illnesses or more specifically my children getting ill.
Not because of them but because I know by the time the illness has passed the likelihood of my sanity being intact is very very small.
Of course I am jesting slightly but poorly children take motherhood and the need for patience to a whole other level. So indulge me and my sense of humour in this tongue in cheek post about how to survive the dreaded chicken pox.
And if I am coming on as slightly insane well I have been inside for two weeks looking after my little ones and slapping calamine lotion on anything that vaguely even resembles a pox. Insanity was inevitable.
Here is how we survived:
While energy and enthusiasm levels were high we all played together: oh the joys of duplo. We built towers. Esme destroyed said towers. Ava cried because Esme had destroyed her architectural wonders and said process repeated for what felt like a hundred times until enough was enough and the duplo had to be put away.
Next up: food. Food makes everyone happy, especially if it is a lollipop full of sugar. And while these lumps of sugar were being consumed, I got to make and drink a cup of coffee which made me feel slightly more human and capable of this parenting gig.
Then it was time to play again, this time it was the turn of the dolls. Cue lots of arguments about which doll belonged to whom. After many impressive negotiations on my part between the parties, there might have been five minutes of play before the girls were bored and wanted to play with something else.
Meanwhile I was exhausted and felt like the U.N. would have been proud of my skills.
More food was obviously going to be the next step. Ice creams went down well, but more boring things like an actual proper lunch...well apparently that is just a ridiculous idea.
Then more playing be it: reading book after book after book; smashing cars into each other; snapchat filters when times were getting a little desperate; to running around screaming when things were just beyond my control.
Until they were both too exhausted and fell asleep.
Which meant I was dancing around the lounge, glad of a little rest bite before it all started again.
In reality I am lucky my girls are not that bad and it was probably harder for me than them. They love and take wonder in the simple things in life while I really missed going out and about and doing more structured activities with friends.
At least now thought I appreciate my freedom and really enjoy time with the girls. I try so hard to be present with them right now rather than planning out what will happen next or where we should be going etc etc. It has made me more relaxed and more patient with them and made me realise what actually is important: health and happiness.
In all seriousness though if your children do have chicken pox calamine lotion really helps prevent the spots itching. And paracetemol based medicine is great for bringing their temperature down safely.
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