Day 1

It's a gray and rainy fall day here, and my previously scheduled plans have been cancelled due to a sick eldest child home with me. It's a little frustrating, because it's day one of my new gym membership and I was supposed to be attending a fitness consultation this morning. I could probably have sent Pacey to school and hoped that he would make it through the day - or at least long enough for me to do my thing - but I am reminding myself that this very scenario is one of the main reasons it works for our family for me to be at home.

October and November are tough months for P from a health perspective. I don't know if it's the change in weather or just the exposure to school germs but he generally ends up with a respiratory illness. Last year it dragged on to become pneumonia and I'd really like to avoid that this year. I've learned (it's possibly taken longer than it really needed to) that it can really be worth it to be conservative, err on the side of keeping him home when he could be at school, hit the nebulizer regularly and hopefully keep things from progressing. Four years after I stopped working I still get a pit in my stomach when I hear his rattly cough. It was such a harbinger of uncertainty when he was younger...he could be sick for a couple of days which were easily covered by my flexible schedule, or he could end up in the hospital and require someone to be out of work for a week or more. The daily dance of who would stay home was SO stressful and usually ended up being me as I did have the flexibility and Chris didn't. I constantly felt like I was letting someone down...my employer when I'd have to be out for days at a time, or Pacey when I had to send him to school or daycare knowing that he needed a day to rest.

Anyway, as I said a good reminder of one of the biggest benefits to our family of my staying at home with kids. I have realized, however, that Pacey has discovered that as much as he likes school he also really likes being at home and playing iPad. I am now implementing our official Sick Day Policies which will include lots of boring resting and not a lot of entertainment.

Back tomorrow with some thoughts on a workshop I attended last night on educational inclusion...