I could start a new blog!

It could be called Sick and Tired! It would be the world's most boring blog, chronicling my life cycles of not getting enough sleep, my illnesses, and the illnesses of my family members.

This week: All. Five. Boys. are sick with a fever and cough. The good part about this illness is that they are very quiet and subdued and it makes no messes. The bad part is that mainly they want to lay down and watch movies, and both our DVD player AND the PS2 are acting up and not playing anything without a million skips and then saying that it can't read the discs. Can you say BAD TIMING??

Today the creeping crud is catching up with me, which I suppose is not surprising since I've been the lone ranger here taking care of all the coughers and hackers for the past 3 days. If mommy falls..who will be there to catch us? The Firecrapper has worked 24-hour shifts yesterday and today, plus is supposed to work til evening the next two days. This could be tricky.

To make matters worse, there's the school attendance policy. This policy allows for 6 "unexcused" absenses per year. Basically, any absense without a doctor's note is unexcused. My doc told me that by law she has to see the kids to give an absentee note, even if everyone involved knows darn well that there is nothing that the doc can do to help. In fact, she told me with frustration, even if the kid has a temp and throws up all over the school nurse and gets sent home, they aren't officially excused until the doc sees them.

Is that STUPID, or what?

I've been a mother long enough to know that most things resolve without a doctor. I have also used a lot of natural remedies and so forth through the years, and it is very rare that my children are even sick enough to need to see the doc. This attendance policy really sticks in my craw, since

1. Even if I tell the school that my child is too sick to attend, I am considered a liar without a doctor to confirm this.

2. The fact that I am able to determine whether or not my child is well, and that I am also able to, 90% of the time, help their body get back to healthy with the resources I have at home that do not include a doctor, is not respected.

3. The practicality of taking my kids to the doctor for this type of thing does not exist. Take yesterday and today for example:

My husband is at work. I have 5 sick children at home. So if I want to prove that my children are too sick for school attendance, I have to drag all of them in to find out that my doctor agrees, all the while dealing with their coughing all over the waiting room, while they breathe in all the germs from all the other people there, spend the money, spend many hours of my day with sick kids languishing in the waiting room while we practice being PATIENT PATIENTS! Does this make any sense? They will get sicker from missing their rest and being exposed to the doc office germs. And yet, here I am. Izzy Man has now exceeded his 6 days and so I guess I am going to have to break down and take him to the doc. I have no idea how I am going to fanagle it. How much do you suppose babysitters charge if they know they are walking into a sick zone?

I am seriously thinking of trying to come up with some alternative to propose to the board of education. I can appreciate that they do not want people keeping their kids home for no good reason. However, I think most parents have work to do and so forth and don't just keep their kids home for kicks. For people like me, I think that my experience and method of dealing with illness should be given the same respect as if I were a parent that only chooses to go to the doctor for even the simplest health issue. I should not have to spend money and time and energy and risk my children's health in order to prove that I am not a liar.

Perhaps a nurse that would drive around the county making house calls just to determine that Johnny has a bad cough or a fever or has been vomiting. We could collect vomit samples to prove to her that we are not lying! We could pay her $10 to make us official, and she could move on down the road to the next sick kid. That would be progress....