Tuesday 20 February 2007

Real or Faking It?

This is the age-old question asked by parents when their child claims they are not feeling well in the morning. Are they really sick or are they just faking it because they don't want to go to school? This is the dilemma I was faced with this morning.

Connor went tubing with his class all day yesterday. He came home in the evening looking exhausted. He had no energy at all. I figure it was from all the outdoor fun he had...plus he was starving by the time he got home.

This morning, he woke up a half hour earlier and came to my room saying he wasn't feeling well. He said he felt like throwing up. Now my mommy-senses told me that he's still tired and just wanted to stay home to rest. So I told him to rest for another half an hour before we had to start getting ready for school. I wanted to see if he actually threw up during that half an hour. Since there was no puke, I sent him to school even though he was acting slow and tired the whole time.

Thirty minutes later, the school called asking me to pick him up. The secretary said he was looking green. Crap.

Am I a bad mother for not believing him and sending him to school? I told him if he didn't feel better throughout the day that he could come home. My formula has always been to send them to school if there were no obvious symptoms. If they were really feeling bad, the school would call me. My track record is pretty good. I've only had to pick them up from school once or twice now. But today, I can't help but feel guilty for not believing Connor in the first place. Were my mommy-senses off?

Anyways, he went straight to bed when I brought him home. I even gave him Gravol because he was complaining about the nausea. That knocked him out for a few hours. He's awake now. No puke yet...that's a good sign.

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