It’s when you’re in hospital, feeling the panic of putting your child’s life in someone else’s hands that you realise just how lucky you are.
Because we go home tomorrow. Thud’s tonsils and adenoids are out. He’s very grumpy but perfectly healthy.
We get to go home.
When you’ve got two strapping kids you float along in a bubble; worrying about attitude problems, sleep issues and a constantly dishevelled house.
How fucking lucky.
To all the parents who have been sitting beside hospital beds for weeks, months, YEARS…. I’m so sorry for sometimes forgetting about you.
It’s unfair. You deserve ALL the attention. You deserve the attention, the praise and the imaginary parenting prizes all us clueless fuckers think we’re competing for.
Because if there was a prize for “parent doing it toughest” – it’d be you. First prize. No runners up.
I honestly can’t think of a challenge bigger than having a sick child.
I carried my little boy into an operating theatre today and watched them put him to sleep and it almost broke me. My mind raced as I remembered every stupid medical drama I’ve ever watched where someone goes in for a minor procedure and dies on the table because of some rare and obscure complication. I couldn’t think straight until he was out.
One whole hour. In his five years.
How fucking lucky.
So if you’re a lucky fucker like me and you know a mum or a dad who’s living beside a hospital bed, or waiting to go back for another round of treatment, or sitting up every night reading medical articles about their child’s condition…
If you know parents struggling to hold the pieces of their heart together as they watch their baby fade away…
Please let them know you’re thinking of them. Let them know they’re amazing. Let them know their strength, dedication and force of love is extraordinary. Let them know their child is lucky to have warriors for parents.
Because shit, it must be torture. And so very lonely.
#thinkingofyou #andyourbabies #alsothankyoutothenurses #nursesareamazing
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