Attention all single people, couples without children, friends, and relatives: Kids get sick.  And kids, like adults, often get sick around the holidays. As the winter months prevail upon us, so do colds, flus, and other ailments. As good parents, we try to prevent this. We take our kids to the doctor for regular check-ups, we feed them healthy foods, bathe them regularly, wash their hands, brush their teeth, use shopping cart protectors, pass out wet wipes, wipe noses, make sure they get enough rest, and dress them warmly during the colder winter months. Why do we do this? Well, for one, we are their parents and we love them. Secondly, we don’t want them to be sick because when they get sick we get sick.

Last year, I arrived at my mom’s house for Christmas with our then, two kids, dog, double stroller, luggage, Christmas presents, and the stomach flu. This flu bug proceeded to infect each and every family member. I watched as each one of us dropped like flies, including my 93-year-old Grandma Betty. I felt terrible. What was sure to be a challenging Christmas for us emotionally had been made harder physically by the darn flu. Now we had the opportunity to think about my dad’s decision to leave my mom for another woman with our head in the toilet.

I guess I didn’t learn from last year’s Christmas flu experience and take additional precautions (staying inside 24/7, not talking to or touching anyone), because so far this winter, we have continued to live our lives and at one point or another during the last two weeks, both of my older kids, thankfully at different times, have thrown up. I also took the baby to the doctor on one occasion convinced that she had an ear infection. She didn’t. I must say when I take one of my kids to the doctor unnecessarily, even though with babies sometimes there is no other way to know if they have an ear infection without taking them in, I feel bummed. Not that I want my kids to be sick or to have to be put on antibiotics, but there is a part of me that feels like I did something wrong in making the call to take them in. It’s as if my mom-o-meter was broken or I wasn’t dialed in to my kid. Not only that but waiting rooms are rampant with sick so exposing them to unnecessary additional germs is not my favorite thing to do. Oh well, at least I feel grateful to have insurance for my children.  I’d much rather opt for taking them in for a mere co-pay than be someone who has to really weigh taking them as a drastic financial decision.

In addition to being grateful for a good insurance plan and the ability to pay for it, I’m grateful for the new steam cleaner we just bought. Last time I remember using a steam cleaner was in college after a raging party, which seems like light years away from cleaning up after my raging four-year-old’s Exorcist moment all over my sofa. As a parent there are times when you ask yourself in disbelief (not in a good way), “who’s life is this and what am I doing right now?” Those moments are often followed by spending a half hour on Google looking up how to get certain smells out of carpets and upholstery.  There are also times as parents when you just decide that throwing things away is better than trying to clean them.  Now those are good times.

Lately, it seems like everyone is calling these days to ask how my kids are feeling. I’ve decided to not take this personally. Before I was reading into these calls as if they were a passive aggressive attempt to remind me about last year’s unfortunate stomach flu incident or to see how far removed we are from being sick before we expose them. Perhaps my family generally cares about my children and the questions are a sincere desire to show care for them? We are all on the mend this week and I have told a few of my family that if we aren’t free from all signs of flu by the time we need to leave for Christmas then we probably won’t bother making the long drive just to be sick somewhere else. So far only one family member has decided to drop out of our Christmastime celebrations. I’m going to assume it has nothing to do with my little drippy noses.

This winter, like every winter, I choose to leave our protective bubbles at home and barring any trace of contagiousness, fever, or vomiting, we continue to live our lives of preschool, shopping, play dates, play groups, gym, holiday parties, pot lucks, movies, and other activities. I am not a reckless mom and I repeat, “I do not like it when my children are sick!” but I choose to live my life in a manner that does not require sterilizing everything in bleach. I am also happy that there are people in my life who would rather get a snot nose hug from my girls than no hug at all.

There is only one week left until Christmas and I’m hoping that everyone stays healthy in time to help Grandma Betty roll out the Santa cookies, but not before taking a moment to first clean under their fingernails and wash off the cooties with lots of antibacterial soap.