Having one child with the flu is terrible. Having two children with the flu is painful. Having two children with the flu AND having it yourself is hell.
The flu entered our house last weekend and that b**ch didn’t leave for 6 days. Impossibly high fevers, chills, body aches, coughing, mucus, sneezing, you name it. I did thank my lucky stars that no one threw up.
So how do you survive taking care of two sick kids and yourself? Well…. You don’t. I do have three tips that may help, though!
Tip #1 –Play their favorite movies and shows on a loop.
They’re going to want to stay in their bed as much as possible. There is no such thing as too much tv when your kid is sick! I’m pretty sure Eli watched 12 hours of paw patrol and 20 hours of Garfield the past week. Camille averaged about 4 viewings of Trolls a day. Now is not the time to be the “my kids only get 30 min of screen time a day” parent.
Tip #2- Keep the drinks flowing and be prepared to waste food.
Fight off dehydration with fluids- whatever they will drink. Another side tip here- on one of my many trips to the pharmacy this week I discovered colorless flavorless pedialyte. Add it to anything so even the pickiest of kids won’t detect it in their drinks! Your kids probably won’t want to eat much, but every once in a while they may pop their head out of their tv caves with a meek “Mom can I have a snack?” Yes, baby. absolutely! What do you want?? They may answer with cereal, hot dogs, mac n cheese; HOWEVER- the true answer to that question is “only two bites of something, you can throw the rest away because I will refuse to finish it and will refuse any leftovers.”
Tip #3- Do the bare minimum
Don’t be a hero, do what you gotta do and spend all your free time playing games on your phone, you deserve it. When you’re the mom there isn’t anyone there to take care of you. So remember to self care by taking medicine, drinking plently of water, and beating that level on homescapes you’ve been trying to beat for days now.
So if the flu hits your household, bunker down and remember my three tips and hopefully you can survive.
Mastering Motherhood 