Like most families with young children we have had our fair share of sickness over the last few months! Gastro, colds and RSV have all been to visit. Over the last few weeks we’ve had our first experience with COVID and we’re just starting to feel normal again. We’ve been very fortunate that none of our illnesses have required hospital trips but sickness in the family is never easy! Especially when everyone goes down at the same time. Trying to rest and recover is so tricky when you don’t even get to sleep through the night.
Here are some things that worked for our family.
Family Screen Time
Screen time can be a real saviour when sickness hits! My daughter has definitely watched more TV in the last few weeks than she usually does, but for this season that was ok! We enjoyed watching some family movies together and we introduced her to some classics. Unfortunately my son is too young and won’t watch TV yet! But we would take it in turns to sit on the floor with him and play.
Baths and showers
There is actually no limit on how many baths your children can have a day! My kids are happy in the bath, they don’t fight and I can sit on the bathroom floor and have a break. They also love coming in the shower with me. I know that I always feel better after a shower and they do as well!
Accepting help
While we were isolating we had friends and family drop off meals, groceries and activities! These deliveries and conversations off the balcony would be the highlights of our days. Once the children were better and we were out of isolation I still needed some extra time to recover so gratefully accepted the help of grandparents.
Simple Food
We ordered more takeaway than normal and stuck to easy meals, like chicken and bread rolls that just required assembly, not cooking.
Taking Turns
My husband and I managed to take it in turns to be sick, he was first so I did most of the parenting for a few days. Then I went down and he was able to take over. We did have times when we were both feeling unwell so we’d just take it in turns to go and have a nap!
Video calls
While we were isolating we really enjoyed video calls! We had another friend who had COVID at the same time so we’d video call each other every day to check in, and she would sing songs to my children!
Get outside
We tried to spend as much time outside as we could. Some days we could only manage walking to the letterbox or sitting on the driveway doing chalk drawing, but a change of scene helps everyone feel better.
When everyone is sick you just have to do what is needed to get through the days and weeks. Your family will have its own challenges but I hope some of these ideas are helpful! And just remember that every parent out there knows how hard it is when sickness hits the family and we are all cheering you on.
