Summer Days

Hey, long time no see! LOL! It's been a week or so since my last post, so that's not too bad, right? Things around here have been busy as usual for summer. The daycare is busy of course, with the 2 yr old, Kadybug everyday, the two P brothers, C&E (5 & 6.5) and nearly 2 Miss Mack. I haven't had the almost 3 J, thank God! I'm hoping his mom is toilet training him as we speak! And C (9) and his sis A (6) have been away for almost 4 weeks now due to their mom having back trouble and being home from work, and also they have been at camp. I won't have to deal with them until the last week of July! HOORAY!! C is a huge pain in my ass, as you may know. And A is ok, but being the only girl and a bit of a princess (too good to play with the boys) she drives me nuts by following me around all day! Miss Mack doesn't come everyday, but she is a good playmate for Kadybug. The numbers are nice for now. I'm not looking forward to adding two more...sigh.
So L and R have been ok so far. Not too many, "I'm BOOOOOORRRED"'s yet! They both had upset stomachs in the middle of the night a few days ago, and I thought we were going to have to deal with a stomach virus, but they seemed fine the next morning. Then last night L had diarrhea and was complaining of stomach pain, and also he was burping up horrible rotten egg smelling sulphurous burps! The smell was disgusting! I can't imagine how nasty the taste was. (TMI?) R has had this before, twice actually and he ends up puking a couple of times after a few hours, a horrible rancid smelling puke (I know, puke stinks but this is beyond gross). I have no idea what it is, other than researching on the internet and finding out it may Giardia. Anyway, L was distraught when I told him he may end up puking. So I got him very reluctantly to drink some baking soda mixed into water (it was recommended on several chats regarding this egg burp, and it couldn't hurt so why not?) Ok, if you've ever tasted baking soda in water ladies, you'll know it has a very, VERY familiar taste....relating to oral sex....s'all I'm sayin'...
I also decided to go against medical advice and gave him a teaspoon of Pepto. They say now kids shouldn't have it, because of the same dangers as giving them Aspirin, but I had it all the time as a kid and I'm fine. Plus, he didn't have a fever, so I wasn't too worried about him getting this Reye's syndrome. And it seemed to help. He slept all night, and ate breakfast, but I'm not going to say he's cured until he goes to the bathroom again.
Monday this week I had an unexpected day off. It was really nice. I was only supposed to have Kadybug, but her dad wanted to spend the day with her (Awwwwwwww) and so she stayed home. My mom, nan and nephew T came over, and we took the kids to the splash pad. It was so nice to spend time with T without his mom around (sorry N, I did miss you though...). Kids are always different without their parents around, mine too, I'm sure. Instead of being sucky and clingy to Mommy, T took my hand and led me all around the splash park, smiling and laughing with me. It was so cute. Then later when we got home, he and L went upstairs and played together. That was sweet. Usually I see R being the more "brotherly" figure to his cousins, but it was really great to see L in that role.
After they left, I took the boys to a local public pool and we went swimming. So, lots of water Monday! I'm wondering if L picked up some bacteria or virus from one of those places....I've had a weird itchy rash on the underside of my right arm since...hmmmm....
I started the kids on their new summer workbooks. L is not too happy with that, of course, seeing as how he hates school so much, but he needs it the most. The P Bros don't mind, especially E who is going into SK. He has already flown through the first part of his book. I'm going to have to get him another! R and L got thicker ones, containing much of the Canadian Curriculum. It's not the Ontario curriculum, but whatever. As long as they're learning/reviewing something and it's not too American (meaning history, spellings and currency) then I'm happy. We usually do this in the summer, and start off with gusto, and that wanes and fades. It's a lot of work for me, having all these kids needing help and all being different levels. I really don't know how home-schooling moms do it! One kid, yeah, maybe two, meh, but more? I couldn't do that full time!!
Today I was supposed to have a follow-up Dr. appt. for my cyst problem. Not sure if I blogged about that or not.... Anyhow, about a month and a half ago, I was in terrible pain and went to the ER thinking I had a kidney stone or something. Turns out ovarian cysts. I was told to go to my doctor and have him make an appt for a U/S in two weeks. I laughed hard at that, and it wasn't because I was stoned on morphine either. Our Dr. NEVER has appts. As you can tell, my follow-up appt was for more than a month later - today. However, due to the fact that I couldn't get the day off, I have had to cancel it. I tried to ask the parents to find alternate care, but I made two big mistakes:
One, is that I neglected to ask them right away. It just slipped my mind, so I ended up asking them last week. Kinda short notice.
Two, is that because I was an idiot, I felt bad about asking them for time off at such short notice and I ended up telling both sets that if they couldn't find alternate care to "not worry about it". I sort of figured that at least one set of parents would be compliant, and that would help me out, but of course, Murphy's Law, neither one of them did. Well, actually, the one set of parents I'm pretty sure completely forgot to try. Typical.
So last night I debated and debated and this morning I debated and debated. Take five kids to the Dr. with me? Or cancel? The baby is no prob. She's easy to take anywhere. My two, fine. But the P Bros? They are good boys but combined with my own two lately and they have been quite the foursome to handle. Very rambunctious and loud and giggly and silly and at times, a little out of hand. I really didn't know if they would behave being left in the waiting room by themselves. It wasn't something I felt comfortable with. Plus, my truck only fits four kids. R would have had to ride in the front seat, something I don't mind if we're just going around the corner to the school or the local beach, but not for a +20 minute drive through town. I can't turn the airbag off in that vehicle.
But cancelling means that I don't get taken care of. I feel alright now of course, but something tells me that this is more of a chronic thing rather than a one-off. And cancelling means no appt again for months. Sigh.
So I called this morning and cancelled. It wasn't worth risking my child's safety or my own sanity. I called around 9:15. The office opens at 9, but apparently they don't answer the phones until 9:30 (WTF?). These people drive me nuts. It's like they try to work as little as possible, and get max. amount of money for it. Sheesh. So they are open Tues, Wed and Thurs from 9 to 4, that's only 7 hours, and really it's only 6 hours because they are closed from 12 to 1 for lunch! They are only open from 9 to 12 on Fridays. On top of that, they don't answer the phone until 9:30? Why? How do they get any business done. It's no wonder we are struggling in our city with sooooo many people without regular healthcare.
Anyhow, the thing that pissed me off was that when I called and listened to their long message before I could leave mine, I heard them say that I would be charged a fee for a missed appt, or one cancelled with less than 24 hrs notice. WTF?! There is no way in hell that I am paying any God Damn fee!! It's not like they couldn't fill the missed appointment. I'm sure anyone on their very long list of patients waiting for appts would gladly take my place. If they send me a bill, I'm going to rip it up and mail it back to them. They make me wait all this time for a simple appointment, and then they have the nerve to tell me I have to pay a fee for missing it? NO WAY.

A Little Bitchy Bloggy

Yesterday I was steaming mad. Madder than a one-legged waitress at Ihop.
I have policies in place in regards to illnesses and the children. These policies are to help prevent the spread of illnesses and mostly to stop me from getting sick! These stupid parents don't seem to understand that! If I get sick, I have to CLOSE THE FREAKING DAYCARE!! How hard is that to understand?? So not only are they going to have to care for their own sick child and take time off work for that, but sending them back to daycare earlier than they should is going to cause them to have to take time off work again when I CLOSE THE FREAKING DAYCARE!!
One of my policies is "24 hours diarrhea and vomit FREE". That seems pretty easy to understand, doesn't it? If your child has had diarrhea or vomited in the last 24 hours, then they can't come to daycare! I've read numerous articles that state that even after a person's stomach virus symptoms have resolved, they can still be contagious for several days. Now, I realize I can't ask parents to keep their kids home for several days symptom-free, but I think 24 hours is fair. And there are always those kids that haven't puked for 12 hours, you think they're ok, and then they start all over again. I don't need (or want) that in my house!
So yesterday, parent M drops off her child S and tells me in the morning that she had a quiet weekend, she may have a cough, and that she wasn't herself the day before. When I questioned that last part, did she tell me she had been sick?
No.
She danced around that whole part of her day and told me that she "just wasn't very bouncy or her energetic self".
So she flat-out lied to me.
Because come lunch time and I'm serving the kids grilled cheese sandwiches (just the thing for an upset stomach), and S takes two bites and informs me that her "tummy still a little bit hurts" so she didn't want anymore. I asked her if her tummy hurt yesterday. Yes. I asked if she threw up yesterday. Yes. Twice.
Well.
And here's where I'm a doormat. I wish I had the guts to call her (M) up at work and ream her out. But I thought face-to-face would have been better. But by the time her mother arrived five hours later, my anger had mostly cooled and I wimped out. I had whole speeches prepared in my head! Why oh why didn't I let her have it?!
Because I'm a wuss.
A wimp.
A doormat.
I hate confrontation.
And of course, I'm still angry.
I did question M about the whole thing. Her excuse was that her daddy thought that it was food poisoning, get this.....................
from unwashed celery.
Whatever.
I HIGHLY doubt that. Because seriously, even though I've been lucky to avoid food poisoning (I think), I do know people that have had it, and it ain't pretty. I'm pretty sure you don't just throw up twice and move on. And I'm fairly certain that fevers are usually involved too. Along with terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea.
And considering how stuffed up and nasal S sounded this morning before I dropped her off at her bus stop, I am fairly certain that it was some sort of CONTAGIOUS virus!!
Regardless of that, I just don't understand how selfish people can be. And people that call themselves Christians too! I'm not religious particularly, but I do try to live my life in an honorable and caring way, trying to think of others before myself as a Christian would. But it really gets under my skin when people who flaunt that they are Christian, and baptize their children and make it seem like they're better than you for it, don't even live by the rules their church sets out for them!! Being selfish is a sin, right? Or am I wrong?
This woman will skip off work any old time she pleases for herself because she's "too tired" that day, or she "needs a break".
Seriously? Is that an honorable work ethic?
She doesn't have a stressful job. Not really. She's not a doctor, or lawyer, or police officer, or air traffic controller, or anything else high-stress like that. No one's life depends on her success or failure, she doesn't answer to a tyrant boss, she doesn't even have long shifts.
She's a high school music/drama teacher. Not even a chemistry teacher, where she may be working with volatile chemicals.
Nope.
I don't doubt that her job is important to someone. Probably even many someones. I'm sure that students connect with her in ways that they don't with other teachers. So in that respect is it fair for her to take off a day because she's tired? If students are counting on her, how would that make them feel to know that their teacher can't be bothered to deal with them that day? Nevermind that we, the tax-payers are paying for her salary, and in consequence to her day off, also her replacement's salary.
Now I ask you, is that not a selfish attitude?
I don't take a day off work unless I'm bed-ridden. Literally.
I've worked through many sleep-lacking days, days when I've been nauseous, days when I've had debilitating stomach cramps, days when I've been too dizzy to walk a straight line, days when I've had a broken arm and days with colds so bad I couldn't stop blowing my nose or coughing. Because to me, I think, I'm letting too many people down if I do call in sick and I am still functioning reasonably well. I know I'm part of a much bigger picture here.
Anyway, back to the selfishness. My point is, is that taking time off work for legitimate reasons like you are sick or your kid is sick is fine. We all have to do it.
But thinking only of yourself is not fine. She sent her child here without thought to the other people she was infecting, the other parents who will have to take time off work, the other kids who will be miserable, and last but certainly NOT LEAST, her own child's discomfort!! Why is it ok for her to take a day off work when she feels like having a day off, and not ok to take one when her own daughter is actually sick? I'm sure that S would far rather have been in her own home. That kind of thinking is just backwards to me.