• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Freebies
  • Gallery
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

The Yellow Birdhouse

Helping you live your best crafty life

  • Crafts & DIYs
    • Felt Crafts
    • Sewing & Embroidery
    • Crochet
    • Everything Else
    • My Favourite Felt Tools
  • Mom Life
    • Fun Stuff for Kids
    • Parenting
    • Decor
    • Printables
    • Homemaking
    • Life
  • Holidays
    • Birthdays
    • Christmas
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Easter
    • Springtime/Mother’s Day
    • Halloween
    • Baby Showers
  • Creative Business
    • Etsy Tips
    • Pinterest Tips
    • Best Biz Tools
    • Work/Life Balance
  • Shop
    • Etsy Shop
    • Sewing Patterns
    • Flower Patterns
    • Ebooks

Moms Don’t Get Sick Days. Eight Tips for Surviving Illness + Children

March 31, 2017 by Laura Leave a Comment

Last Updated on April 9, 2021

 

It's no secret that life doesn't stop just because Mom's got a cold. So here are 8 tips to help manage family life + sickness.

Surprise!  When you’re a mom you can’t call in sick!  There’s no one to call because you are the boss. (In theory, the kids might not know that part).  If you’re a stay at home mom or a work from home mom then you know all about this.  The workload doesn’t change but your ability to get off the couch is drastically reduced.  It’s one of those ‘joys’ of parenthood.

As with any other major disaster, the key to survival is to be prepared.  Here are 8 tips to help you get through the day when you feel like you’ve been run over by a bus.

1. Disposable Dishes

Keep a stash of paper plates and plastic cups on hand for emergency use.  You don’t want to be doing dishes, but chances are if you don’t wash them then they pile up and up on your counters until the stack is blocking access to the Cheerios box.  Forget that.  Do yourself a favour and use the disposable dinnerware.

2. Frozen Meals

Keep a selection of frozen meals and food on hand.  Standing over a hot stove while you shake with fever is bonkers.  Plan ahead and prep some food that is easily re-heated or microwave-able.  You will thank yourself!  You can freeze a bag of sandwiches, par-boiled veggies, meat balls and tomato sauce, chicken casserole, quiche and cake.  There’s nothing quite like the feeling of not having to think about what’s for dinner.  Bonus points if you freeze a meal in a foil pan that you can throw out with the dinnerware!

3. Screentime

T.V. Netflix. Ipad.  Just do it.  Hand over the technology to the tiny humans and don’t feel guilty about it.  No one will suffer permanent damage from spending a couple of days in front of the tv.  Park everyone on the couch or the big bed and try to nap to the sounds of the Octonauts.

How to manage family life when Mom has a cold

4. Arms Reach

Make sure everything is within arms reach.  Have water bottles for everyone, boxes of kleenex and wipes and snack packs.  Baby wipes can handle just about anything, so make sure the garbage can is within tossing distance.

5. Forget the Laundry

Make sure everyone knows which pile of clothes is the clean (ish) pile.  Try to ensure everyone has clean underthings, but besides that the laundry will keep.  Forever.  Because laundry never seems to go away.  I haven’t seen the bottom of the hamper in years.

When Mom is sick, forget the laundry.

6. Be Realistic

Try to have realistic expectations.  I’m the queen of unrealistic expectations, so I feel a bit like a hypocrite suggesting this.  But whatever.  Try to go easy on yourself.  It’s ok if the house falls apart for a couple of days.

7. New Games

Keep a secret stash of toys or games that the kids don’t know about.  New stuff is always slightly more entertaining than old stuff and they might leave you alone for an extra 10 minutes of congested napping.

8. Audiobooks

Stories on tape or audiobooks.  My boys fight less when we’re listening to stories in the car, I think it’s because they really have to pay attention to hear it.  That’s a nice alternative to having the tv on all day.

Ideally you wouldn’t get sick in the first place, but to achieve that you’d probably have to never touch your children.  Illness in families is inevitable.

What’s your top tip for getting through a sick day + children?

The ultimate resource guide for busy moms. Over 74 apps, printables, subscriptions and podcasts to help mom life run a little smoother.

Filed Under: Mom Life, Parenting Tagged With: mom life

Previous Post: « 4 Things You Need to Become a Confident Mom
Next Post: How to Avoid Getting Overwhelmed by Housework »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hey There!

I’m Laura, a busy work at home mama to two amazing boys. I help moms live their best crafty life, whether that’s with fun DIY projects or running an online shop. My passion is crafting with wool felt, but you’ll find a little bit of everything on the blog since I’m an unstoppable crafter and I love to share! Read More…

Recent Posts

  • 16 Free Printable Father’s Day Crafts
  • 18 Free Printable Mother’s Day Crafts for Kids
  • Easy DIY Felt Dusty Miller – Free Pattern

Felt Woodland Animal Patterns:

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Legal Stuff

POLICIES
PRIVACY
DISCLOSURES

Copyright © 2023 ยท The Yellow Birdhouse

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this if you continue to visit this site. If not, feel free to leave, no hard feelings!Accept Read More
https://theyellowbirdhouse.com/privacy/

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT