‘W’ is for Wimp

Men are wimps when they are sick. Maybe not all men. But I know one…Any guesses?

It never fails. When I get a cold or a bug, I’m looked at critically, as if I’m faking. I’m not quite sure he believes me when I’m sick, until he gets it. Then, of course, his cold, stomach bug, whatever, is way worse.

“I must have it worse than you did. There’s no way you could get out of bed if you had it this bad.”

Uh, yeah I could. It’s called needing to get out of bed. And, you are a big wimp. My third child, if you will.

That’s pretty much the way sickness works around here. Once, I needed him to stay home from work because I was sick. Once, in 5 years. He vacuumed in the bedroom while I was trying to sleep. He scored points for cleaning, but definitely lost some points elsewhere.

So, of course, the girls had a cold last week, and Joe is coming down with it. It’s inevitable, we get sick when the girls get sick. What do I do? I take medicine, and push through it. What does he do? Complain.

“I have a headache.”

“Did you take Motrin?”

“No.” Ok. Don’t say another word about how bad your head hurts until you take something to help it.

He is not much for medicine. He prefers whining and a glass of water to help him kick whatever the current ailment is. Latest malady? A cold. The girls have been fighting one after another for weeks, and it was inevitable that one of us got it. We had some medicine kicking around, that I swear by, that prevents colds or makes them go away faster. I gave him a bottle to take to work.

I just spent the last 10 minutes on the phone, listening to him gag it down and complain about the taste. He’s never taking it again. He’d rather have a cold than taste this shit, and so on. Suck it up, man!

You know how it feels when you can’t get your child to take medicine? When they balk and whine and cry, yet when they taste it, they realize it’s not so bad, or when they feel better, they’re happy they took it? I don’t have that luxury here. My kids are more logical than my husband when it comes to basic health care.

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