Vicious Cycle

I am caught in a vicious cycle, my friends.  A germ cycle.

Child A brings home a nasty little germ and passes it on to child B, C, or D, or some combination thereof.  Then I take care of them, wiping their noses, cleaning up their *ahem* messes, and nursing them back to health.  This wears me out, making me extra-susceptible to whatever germ is parading around our home.

I get sick.  But no one's around to take care of me.  No one wipes my nose or cleans up my messes or nurses me back to health.  (Okay, someone else wiping my nose would be weird.)  In fact, it seems to me that children tend to be extra naughty/messy/demanding when I am sick.  So instead of resting and recovering, I wear myself ragged and just try to make it through the day, which drags the cold out, making it far worse than it needs to be.

Then child B brings home another germ.  It might make child B sick or it might not.  It also may or may not make the other kiddos sick.  But since my immune system is already compromised, this little germ wreaks havoc on me. 

And once again, I wear myself out trying to keep up with the demands of regular life.  And just when I start to feel a little bit better I go somewhere public, like church.  Or my kiddos go to school.  Or I have to go grocery shopping. All of these places, from October through April, are pretty much germ soup, and my body can't handle it.

My immune system is toast.

And thus the cycle continues.

No one told me that having kids could literally make you sick.  All the time.  I guess it's one of those nasty little secrets no one talks about for fear of scaring you out of having more kids.  Well, I'm breaking the silence.  Beware!!  Beware!!

All I want to do is hide in bed all day and sleep and try to breath and watch my Hulu queue.  But I can't, because everyone needs to go here or do this and the house is a mess and the laundry needs to get done and dinner has to be made.

What we need, people, is a hospital/hotel where moms can go to recuperate.  Private rooms, big fluffy beds, room service, maid service, and free WiFi.  A couple of days in there and I'd break through this cycle and get back into the swing of things, full force.  Anyone want to go into business with me and create one of these?  We'd make millions, I'm sure.  We could call it a "mompital".  Wait, that's stupid.  "Mom's Time Out"?  Or "Mom's Hiding From You So She Can Get Better, So Quit Trying To Call Her So She'll Come Home And Make You A Snack/Find The TV Remote/Drive You To Preschool".  There we go.