I knew I was in trouble when I heard my daughter moaning. It was 6:30 am and I was about to run out the front door and head to work. The moan however, made me stop in my tracks. I dropped my book bag to the floor and went to investigate. I found her standing in the bathroom, eyes bleary with sleep, struggling with her pajamas in her haste to go to the bathroom. As I was helping her adjust everything after she had finished, she looked at me and said, “Daddy, my head hurts.” At that moment, I knew my day was shot, although I tried to deny it. I got her back into bed, hoping she was just tired, tucked her in and headed out the door.
I wasn’t at work long before I got the text message from my wife: “Call me-Michaela threw up.” With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I dialed the number. My wife answered on the second ring. She told me that our daughter had thrown up and was running a fever. She then told me that her parents could not take her (they are usually our first option) and that she had a full schedule of patients. That left only one option: me.
Now, I don’t mind staying home when the kids are sick. In fact, I do it more often than not. This just wasn’t a good day for me to miss school. I had a million things to get done, I had a lot of material to cover with my students, and frankly, we are getting into crunch time as the school year whines down.
Nevertheless, I backed up as much work as I could carry and headed home. My daughter obviously didn’t feel well and all she really wanted to do is curl up in my lap. As a dad, I absolutely love it when my kids curl up in my lap, as a teacher with a stack of papers to grade, it was inconvenient. The dad in me won out though and I left her in my lap until she fell asleep, when I put her in bed. She slept for a couple of hours and I was fairly productive while she did.
This cycle continued for the rest of the day. My daughter would wake up, climb back into my lap, and then fall asleep again about thirty minutes later. Once she was asleep, I would take her back to her bed where she would sleep for another hour before she would wake up and climb back into my lap. The cycle was broken by a couple of trips to the bathroom and couple of rounds of throwing up and a trip to the doctor (the doctor was convinced that it was strep throat but the test came back negative).
Although I was not as productive as I needed to be and I hate cleaning up vomit, I wouldn’t trade these days home with the kids for anything because I know they won’t last. My oldest son has already grown out of sitting in dad’s lap, and my youngest son is quickly on the way. I know it is only a matter of time before all my kids will be “too big” to cuddle with dad and they will be “too big” to turn to me when they aren’t feeling well. It won’t be that long before my kids are “all grown up”.
Even as the stresses of work crowded my day, a day home with my daughter (or any of my kids) is a treasure.