Daisy Turnip writes.....
Daughter didn’t go to college on Thursday. She had a bad cold and a very very sore throat. I knew she was ill because she came home at 8.30 on Wednesday night and went straight to bed - this never happens. Teenagers do tend to take the attitude of you can sleep when you die – my Daughter lives to this motto with an absolute passion (unless it’s in the morning and she can’t prise herself out of bed!!).
She woke up on Thursday morning, walked into my office (ie spare room) and croaked, ‘I really can’t go to college today, I feel so ill’ and put that, ‘I’m really ill, please sympathise with me’ look on her face.
I sympathised and told her not to worry and go back to bed. No, I am NOT a push over mother. I was a single, full time working mom for years. The child of a full time working, single mother has to be bleeding from the eyes, in order to wangle a day off school. Full time working moms usually have to adopt the attitude of ‘if your child is THAT ill, you’ll get a call from the school to come and collect them’ – that’s easier for your employer to handle! Don’t even go there about the guilt trips we all have to go through!
Daughter went downstairs with her fleecy blanket and lay on the sofa to flick through the 101 Sky channels of absolute day time TV crap. I continued to work.
About an hour later, Daughter came upstairs sobbing. And I mean, seriously sobbing. I knew something was drastically wrong because she came and gave me a hug! ‘What on earth is that matter?’ I said, thinking she must have been in incredible pain with her throat. ‘It’s, it’s, boo hoo, it’s, it’s, aaagggghhh, oh mom, it’s the Jeremy Kyle show.’ I’ve moved from absolute terror to absolute disbelief!! Jeremy Kyle could distress my daughter so much? I know it’s naff TV, but all you have to do is hit the up and down channel key. ‘No’ she said, ‘it’s about people who have lost loved ones and can’t move on with their lives’. I think, for the first time as a parent, I was absolutely baffled as to what to say. I did feel the urge to say, ‘Well, just remember to be nice to all family members instead of your hormonal outbursts’ but I was good, and just stroked her arm and said, ‘awww, don’t be silly’ (well what else can you say?).
She then proceeded to go into her bedroom (fleecy blanket in tow) and switch on her TV. I asked her what she was doing, ‘watching the rest of Jeremy Kyle’ came her response between the sobs!!
Showing posts with label illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illness. Show all posts
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Sunday, 11 March 2007
It's Tough Being on a Three Month Holiday!
Daisy Turnip writes.....
As you know my parents are still in sunny Spain, enjoying their 3 month break and increasing their love affair with the beloved balcony, ‘oh, it’s so hot here now, it’s so hot, we can’t even sit out on the balcony’ my mom informed me over the phone on Saturday afternoon. My heart bleeds!
Mom was taken ill on Friday and had to go to the doctors on Saturday. She’s now got to go for a scan on Wednesday. I’m sure Dad will now panicking about this, because a) Mom might not be very well and b) him being forever the pessimist, he will have in his head (although he won’t dare admit it or talk to mom about it) that the insurance might not cover the medical costs!
I’m worried that the medical staff might think Mom is weird! How to make friends and influence people eh!! Whilst waiting to see the doctor, my mom went to the English receptionist and asked, ‘He is a proper doctor isn’t he? He is like an English GP isn’t he?’ The receptionist informed my mom that he was indeed a ‘proper doctor’, she had nothing to worry about and all his certificates and qualifications were on the wall in his room. My Mom’s retort was, ‘Well you can buy all those qualification things off the internet now can’t you!’ Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!
Mom informed me that Dad said he no longer wants to go to Spain on their annual 3 month holiday because ‘we are always ill, and it’s also like being in God’s waiting room – everyone is old!’ My interpretation of this is as follows:-
We’re always ill: -
a) Dad has had a bad back – he would have had this in the UK and it would probably have been worse with the cold in the UK
b) They’ve both had a cold – again, they would have had these in the UK and they would have been more miserable with them because they wouldn’t have been able to sit on the balcony with a box of tissues and Dad would have had to turn up the heating in the UK!!
c) They both caught a 24 hour bug – do we not have bugs in the UK anymore?
d) Dad had a hangover last week! OK, he wins this argument, the beer’s cheaper and Mom allows him to drink when they are on holiday
It’s like being in God’s waiting room: –
a) Yes Dad, that’s right – it’s because only the bloody retired can afford to go off on 3 months holiday in the sunshine during the coldest spell in the UK
b) Retired means you’re getting older, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are old!
As you know my parents are still in sunny Spain, enjoying their 3 month break and increasing their love affair with the beloved balcony, ‘oh, it’s so hot here now, it’s so hot, we can’t even sit out on the balcony’ my mom informed me over the phone on Saturday afternoon. My heart bleeds!
Mom was taken ill on Friday and had to go to the doctors on Saturday. She’s now got to go for a scan on Wednesday. I’m sure Dad will now panicking about this, because a) Mom might not be very well and b) him being forever the pessimist, he will have in his head (although he won’t dare admit it or talk to mom about it) that the insurance might not cover the medical costs!
I’m worried that the medical staff might think Mom is weird! How to make friends and influence people eh!! Whilst waiting to see the doctor, my mom went to the English receptionist and asked, ‘He is a proper doctor isn’t he? He is like an English GP isn’t he?’ The receptionist informed my mom that he was indeed a ‘proper doctor’, she had nothing to worry about and all his certificates and qualifications were on the wall in his room. My Mom’s retort was, ‘Well you can buy all those qualification things off the internet now can’t you!’ Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!
Mom informed me that Dad said he no longer wants to go to Spain on their annual 3 month holiday because ‘we are always ill, and it’s also like being in God’s waiting room – everyone is old!’ My interpretation of this is as follows:-
We’re always ill: -
a) Dad has had a bad back – he would have had this in the UK and it would probably have been worse with the cold in the UK
b) They’ve both had a cold – again, they would have had these in the UK and they would have been more miserable with them because they wouldn’t have been able to sit on the balcony with a box of tissues and Dad would have had to turn up the heating in the UK!!
c) They both caught a 24 hour bug – do we not have bugs in the UK anymore?
d) Dad had a hangover last week! OK, he wins this argument, the beer’s cheaper and Mom allows him to drink when they are on holiday
It’s like being in God’s waiting room: –
a) Yes Dad, that’s right – it’s because only the bloody retired can afford to go off on 3 months holiday in the sunshine during the coldest spell in the UK
b) Retired means you’re getting older, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are old!
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