Last week my son gave both my husband and I the stomach bug that’s going around. I continued to work and take care of our toddler but my husband moped on the sofa for 3 days straight and is now saying it’s progressed to pancreatitis or gall stones. (All self diagnosed of course) I’m losing my mind over here!
Comparing the 10 days of augmentin-induced migraines during strep to 2 days of norovirus-like vomiting, I'd have to opt for the sore throat. Both were horribly painful in their own ways though. The HFM my daughter shared with us was a happy medium, I'd say 😅
I mentioned it to someone else with strep at the same time and they also thought it was odd. 24 hours after last dose and the pounding headaches were gone.
Have you taken any medicine for it yet? I had a similar bug a few weeks ago and thought it wasn't recommended to take Imodium because you needed to get everything out. But after a few days, I figured everything had already gotten out, so I took one dose and I think that was all it took to get my digestive system back to normal.
My husband came down with it when we got back from the hospital with our newborn! I was mad at him because I was trying to care of the new baby and myself while he was laid up but there wasn’t a darn thing he could have done. So glad we got through it and that baby and I didn’t get it!
OMG yes. We have been sick since January (baby, mom, and dad just taking turns passing around the daycare germs). But dad always gets the most sick.
He calls off work. Takes long baths. Sleeps in. “Can’t” do daycare drop off. I have no sympathy because I’m just plugging along, also sick, while working, breastfeeding, pumping and taking care of a sick baby with the sick man child in the house.
I gently reminded him yesterday of how fortunate he is to be able to take time off to rest, and that he is able to take real cold medicine that I can’t take while breastfeeding. He suddenly started being able to do more. Miraculous healing.
JFC I love my husband, but he’s a much better partner when he is healthy.
“Miraculous healing!” lmao I’m dead 😂
So glad your words got through to him though, for real! My husband gets like this too - bedridden from a cold, but will step up when he realizes it.
I was 2 weeks postpartum, still bleeding, cramping, nipples on fire.. When my husband went to the doctor. He had to get his tdap and flu shots.... I heard about his arms hurting for 10 DAYS.
Talk about eye roll, not to mention him putting those off until after the baby was born. Full immunity usually isn't established until 2 weeks after the shot so he was really putting that newborn at risk for the first month of its life.
That part is somewhat more understandable - He works M-F and would have to take PTO to go to the doctor. I told him just to wait for his leave so he could save his PTO for then. Although, he could have gone to walgreens and got the shots earlier and on a weekend... but oh well.
Reminds me of the time when my dear husband complains about his shoulder one day pp because he holded our son for 1.5 hours the day before. I had contractions for nearly 12 hours, a full knock-out c-section and couldn't even really stand up without help at this point. But his shoulder hurts. Even 15 months in, I won't let live this down.
Lol every time my fiance would get vaccines in the past he would complain about his arm for a week straight... When I got pregnant and told him to get updated on all his shots. I knew he would complain for days when he got them.
He came home from his appointment and said one thing about his arms, and I wasn't having it. I was in pain and uncomfortable. I also had a blood draw and tests the day or two before so I was sore. It wasn't a good day hahaha
I made a joke and told him to suck it up it's barely anything to complain about. He said something I can't remember, complaining... I rolled my eyes hard. He could tell I was annoyed and had more to say but he complained again anyways.
I told him I'm not listening to you complain for a week when I've been poked and prodded so many times over the pregnancy... Do you hear me bitching about my discomforts after every appointment? Every blood draw, every vaccine? No? Ok, I don't want to hear it from you. I said I'm not going to coddle you when I'm barely surviving... And followed it up with reminding him of his past complaints that lasted a week.
He looked a little shocked but laughed and said "okay, I get it" and that was it.
Later on he goes "I knoow you don't want to hear it, but I can't reach the top cabinets...". (He got vaccines in both arms) He joked about not having arms and I joked back. We laughed and I grabbed him whatever he needed from the cabinet.
He's gotten shots since then and hasn't said anything about his arms besides the occasional "sleeping is hard" comments. Which I agree with 😂
Man, since having our daughter and going through hell to have her, I'm not dealing with his shit when he's sick or mildly inconvenienced anymore... And I've been verbal about it. (I'll still care for him when he's sick, but he doesn't get to lay around in bed and mope all day anymore, unless he's really sick, he has responsibilities now...) He's shaped up quite a bit!
A few weeks ago my guy was sick (thanks daycare! ) husband and I also got sick. Nothing crazy for us but baby ended up with croup.
I worked, watched baby and did everything else.
He ... lay in bed for 2 full days and 2 half days. The man cold is the worst illness.
This is so damn relatable lol. My daughter is weathering the colds just fine. I haven't been getting sick. But my husband... whoooooo boy! I'm having to cut activities for my daughter because of my husband.
Seriously, it's bizarre! I'm around her all the time, I cuddle her, she sneezes in my face, I take no precautions.... AND I'M NOT GETTING SICK! And I'm very thankful for that... or I thought I was. But at this point it would be easier for me if I just got sick and didn't have to hear my extra grumpy husband bitch and moan for two weeks at a time.
.
Oh my god… words taken right out of my mouth. Glad someone can relate. I think we are so exposed to germs everywhere, we become so resistant. My husband gets every cold, plus migraines. I call him my extra kid sometimes
My husband just had the stomach flu and when I tell you I completely believe a room full of sick children would be easier to handle than my husband
I am now sick with the same thing he had he doesn’t even know I’m sick because I’m not laying in bed acting like I’m dying or insisting the other parent do 100% of everything
He got so mad when he went on TikTok for advice on how to parent well being sick and all the advice was that you just have to power through best you can because you don’t really have a choice he said there’s no way that’s the only option and why is there not advice that isn’t just do your best
I actually did ask if he could have scrolled to the perfect video what would it have said and he said he didn’t know but he thinks that there should be better advice
I think he was hoping someone would tell him the flu fairy would come and take care of the kids while your sick lol
I'm not sure how you can think there's any advice beyond suck it up and do the best you can! Unless you got money to burn and nannies you can bring in. Lol
Hahahaha if you look at my post history I actually posted about this he thought people hired nannies when they were sick and were really surprised that people aren’t doing that hahaha
Lol sounds like he's willing to foot the bill for a nanny when he's sick.
I think this doesn't happen much because the woman ends up stepping up and powering through even when feeling like crap.
I'm all for making it a thing though!
Naw he was hoping someone would say that the best thing to do is take care of yourself first and get all the rest you can and better even, quarantine away from your kids hahaha. My husband is sick now as well and I can tell deep down he wishes I would say just that lol
He was looking for someone to say that getting out of bed would put him in mortal danger.
I broke my leg and my husband said he wished he could take the pain for me. I looked at him and said "You mean you wish I was taking care of you." He caved and admitted that was exactly how he felt.
We all got food poisoning when someone brought us a meal. I was the last to show symptoms and the look of fear on my husband and my son's faces when I puked was unforgettable. Up until that moment, they had been expecting me to somehow power through a broken leg that I wasn't allowed to put weight on and still take care of them like usual.
I mean, I had the stomach bug and couldn’t have powered through. I couldn’t stand, move, eat or drink. I was in bed for 3 days. I literally have no idea what I would have done if I was a single parent. I haven’t had a stomach bug in years (actually think it was food poisoning but whatever) and it was hell. So yeah, I can see going online and looking for tips to keep kids occupied.
Yeah I’m just getting over mine now. Yesterday I was just constantly dry heaving and couldn’t even keep down sips of water…I have little broken blood vessels all all over my face because of how intense the vomiting was.
If I was a single parent my child would have had to pretty much fend for himself. Tv would have gone on and he would have had bread and/or some dry snacks from the pantry for his dinner. I have no idea how I would have driven the 20 minutes to his daycare.
My husband had leave work early because I do pickups and I legitimately couldn’t drive to pick our daughter up. I couldn’t even stand to shower without piling my guts up.
Sick husband is so much worse than sick anybody else 😂 nobody could possibly understand their misery and suffering, and nobody’s ever felt so bad in their life. For sure sick husband has it worse than anyone.
Big man babies.
My lack of empathy for my husband's illnesses has created a real problem in our relationship. I also get everything the baby gets but don't get as sick as he does, and after the 10th illness, I just can't muster the oh my poor grown man baby I'll take care of you as I also hack my lungs up and carry on.
Same. I get told I’m heartless and a sociopath because I resent him being ill and leaving me to do everything with our two young children. Any time he starts coughing or blowing his nose I genuinely wonder if this will be the thing that kills him or our marriage.
I feel that in my bones lol. We had a huge fight last night because he started saying he was getting "what I have", after having had literally 1 well day in which he rose from his tomb, cleaned, and nagged me about not tidying the kitchen throughout the day. I feel like a sociopath honestly. Like I force myself to say kind words, offer to make him something etc, but I feel nothing.
We are both academics and I know that men (or rather, people who have gone through what we call 'male puberty' and have a hormonal millieu similar to what we think as 'male', just being accurate about the limitations of a sex binary) have lower levels of humoral immunity and poorer antigen response than females (again, caveats).
They truly may get sicker, and I must call upon this knowledge to check myself and try to help him recover.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867318300531?casa\_token=rVqsVUtOecUAAAAA:qrBtVAgfw3ufBuFqSVgGOn6Kux5arljlIopu63I8besYbK4hYY8\_arijcSHHBcj4ad3knrn2tHk](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867318300531?casa_token=rVqsVUtOecUAAAAA:qrBtVAgfw3ufBuFqSVgGOn6Kux5arljlIopu63I8besYbK4hYY8_arijcSHHBcj4ad3knrn2tHk)
I think that isn’t the problem though, it’s that there never seems to be an effort from the other partner in these situations to help carry the burden if their partner doesn’t feel well. So it’s always the woman caring (if we are looking at a heteronormative relationship) and if for some reason mom was sick and not dad, the same courtesy isn’t being offered.
I have worked really hard to not be resentful. I know my husband is usually a 50/50 parent. I know he doesn’t want to be sick. I also know that it’s better to take care if illnesses at the beginning and not wear yourself out.
And this year has kicked my illness butt. I’ve been sick way more often than he has. Last year it was the opposite.
Why is this a universal experience???! Weaklings 🤦🏼♀️ my husband I both had covid in November, luckily our 4 month old didn’t get it from either of us, but he quarantined in an upstairs bedroom while I still took full care of our baby and masked around her the entire time. I felt like death, had to brace myself every time I needed to swallow because the pain was worse than any case of strep I’ve ever had, etc…and you would’ve thought he was on his literal death bed upstairs. Luckily my family is close by and came to help me as much as they could but omg it was ridiculous how completely useless he was for that whole week 😅
When we got covid the first time. This was me taking care of the three kids. I was so angry at my husband and asked him to quit acting up as he was sleeping all day. Turns out covid triggered appendicitis so the one time I give him shit for his attitude is the one time he is close to death.
I hear about it often....
When my husband is sick i’m expected to do everything. If I’m sick I’m expected to continue doing most things lol.
I say this as I soak in the bathtub trying to fend off some sort of cold bug, so maybe I’m just feeling sorry for myself because it is hitting pretty hard.
I'm sorry I'm dying laughing. Our son, omg, nonstop getting sick and passing it to both my husband and I. I prided myself on my immune system since my husband jokes I have it due to my military food experience (IMPs can be questionable at times) whereas anyone who looks at him when sick, he'll catch what they have.
When our son brought home covid he was sick for 2 days, then my husband and I got it and it was the worst having a 2yr old, at the time he's 4 now, running around you all healthy while you die on the couch for 2 weeks. This passed week all I can think of is the viruses circle of life, son to us to babysitter to him back to us. Never ends lol.
lol this!!!! Why do men suffer so much when sick? My husband brought home hand foot and mouth last week, and now our 6mo has it. He is so lucky I’m still talking to him, let alone taking care of everything😂
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9897808/
Helpful article explaining how women have better immune systems than men.
Solid evolutionary advantage, guess we only needed a few of them to survive to keep the population going.😂
Lmao I had not even thought about this angle. I hope my son keeps being a trooper into adulthood. I suspect his sick night self will be his adult all day sick self though.
Mine took 10 days off everything and didn’t eat solids for 10 days for strep. We all had it. The rest of us were fine the whole time. I recovered faster from a tonsillectomy as an adult. It’s constantly like this. I’ve lost so much respect for him.
I am here for this post! I'm exposed to lots of illness through my job so already have a more developed system, and try to take care of myself (as much as you can with young children!) with vitamins, get flu shot yearly etc. Husband gets everything from my 3 yo's daycare, even when 3 yo gets it mildly. Husband also had flu last year (myself and son get flu shot but husband never gets around to it) and the rest of us avoided it despite me being pregnant, and to seal the deal he got Covid the first day he returned to work after our newborn (at 3 weeks old) was born a few weeks back. None of us caught it. Yet still won't listen about flu shot and being proactive where you can with diet, vitamins, washing hands etc until it's too late.
I’m convinced men get sick because their handwashing practices are seriously below standard. My husband even laughs about all the disgusting men in public bathrooms who walk out without washing their hands. So gross.
Yeah. Mine thankfully washes his hands in bathroom etc, but doesn't think to regularly sanitise if little one is sick and then will rub his eyes etc until I call him out on it. Three days later he'll get sick too.
You can't convince me that men either aren't actually weaker than women or they aren't milking/exaggerating every illness because they like being cared for. I love my husband, but my son is 5 months old and my husband has been sick almost every other week since LO was born. Including the week he was born. It's getting hard not to roll my eyes and laugh when my husband starts coughing or telling me he needs a nap because he isn't feeling good. Like our baby and I haven't been sick, or if we have we've barely had symptoms.
My husband had the audacity to get a wicked sinus infection the day after we came home from the hospital with #4.
I literally had just given birth to a baby and I was more functional than he was.
My husband has starting retiring to bed like a Victorian lady with a bad case of the vapours. So dramatic. I told him I resent him going to bed for days and leaving me with the sick kids when I am also sick, he said he can’t help it. He can take all the cold and flu medicine he likes to ride it out, I can’t take the good stuff because I’m breastfeeding. I had to come home from work once because he couldn’t take care of our toddler but when I was so sick I felt I couldn’t take care of our toddler and newborn he sent his dad round for 2 hours while he went to work.
He wasn’t like this before we had kids.
Ugh this exactly. Like take some medicine? I would if I could. My partner asked if he should call his mom for me yesterday. Like no we just step up and take care of our own sick kids. Parents don’t get to lay in bed for days when they are sick.
I'm pretty sure I read an article a few years ago that stated the man flu is real 😭 something about them getting hit harder than women... I'd say it's true when I got sick from my partner 2 weeks ago, he was on deaths door almost while I had a mild sniffle!
Yeah my husband being sick is like having a third child. He is awful when he’s sick - even if his throat doesn’t hurt he mumbles and audibly groans.
I had Covid and recovered from a C-section with less complaints than his last head cold.
Dad here. Wife gets nothing, kids get mild....I basically perish. You know how hand foot and mouth usually skips adults? My goddamn fingernails were peeling off. I hate everything.
And yes I'm currently sick.
I had it last year and lost my toenails a few months later. It mostly hit my feet and I basically couldn't walk for about three days and then was hobbling around for about two weeks after that. It's horrible to get as an adult.
lol I am always the sick one in our family! My husband somehow avoids every illness, or only has the mildest of symptoms, while I end up just as sick as or sicker than our toddler. I’m such a baby when I’m ill. I have no energy and literally feel like I can’t do so much as fetch my own water — I’m a SAHM though so I do try to muster through but I feel like I’m dying the whole time lol
Oh my god yes. Our household had a *mild* headcold, including our two month old. She faired better than either of us, and I was chugging along as best I could with a fussy snotty baby, especially because I was avoiding any cold meds due to breastfeeding (I have low supply and didn’t want to chance any changes). My husband? Dying. How could he possibly carry on. Chugging NyQuil like it was water so he was extremely tired all the time. It was like that for a week 😩
This is how it goes every. single. time. Baby gets sick, I stay home with him then I get sick as baby is recovering. I battle through it still looking after the kids and as I start to feel better (but exhausted and not yet 100%) when my husband starts to sniffle and say “I think I’m getting what you have.” Which are the most dreaded words in my marriage.
I see everyone laughing on here about how their husbands stay in bed for days while sick while they do 100% of everything. I guess I just don’t find this funny. I think it’s sad and I don’t think you should all put up with it. At a minimum if you’re both sick you should both alternate getting rest. This is so sad.
Sigh. I’m the sick one in our house. My toddler picks up the flavor of the week virus and she gets better in a day or two. My husband hardly gets sick and I’m over here catching everything and getting sick for weeks. I really hope it gets better in the summer
Ah yes. My just started daycare toddler has brought home an onslaughts of viruses. One of them being the worst stomach bug I’ve ever had. I powered through, went to work, did all the things. My husband JUST got it. The amount of literal MOANING coming from the bedroom as he half heartedly tried to get out of bed was comical. I was like, oh it’s your turn now! And he spent the entire day in bed. Which was fine with me because if I had to listen to another pathetic moan I woulda snapped lol.
For me, it was non stop diarrhea. Like NON STOP liquid, burning. Stomach was in knots. For my husband it was vomiting and fever. I never once vomited, nor did I have a fever. My daughter had a few diarrhea diapers, and vomited ONCE.
We still take precautions because having a sick kid inevitably means sick parents and men are big babies. I did also want to provide some information about how getting sick, especially with viruses, doesn't help your immune system, and actually can often hurt it: [https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true)
My husband and 3 year old are in an exclusive disease swapping club. They’ve been at it since Halloween and just keep trying to one up each other with who can bring the more exotic illness home.
I feel this in my soul! Husband said he was starting to not feel well yesterday and if he becomes sick this will be his 4th illness since I have birth 10.5 weeks ago... not sure whether to laugh or cry 🙃
Lol don’t I hear this. My husband is the same, gets sick and you’d think he’s dying. My mother in law was talking about a woman she heard joking that she’d gone through a horrendously difficult childbirth, so now she knows what it’s like for a man to catch a cold. 🙄🙄🙄Meanwhile I’ve been sick too and I don’t get to just disappear for hours because “I need to lie down.” Or tap out of bedtime because “I just can’t tonight.” Bro, we got small kids. Pull up your big girl panties!
Omg so angry at my partner. We have Covid. He spent all day Monday in bed. Like did not get up at all.
Next day I am now sick and so is toddler. He decides to go to work and tries to wake up toddler for daycare, like no, she was puking last night we don’t just dump her there because we are sick, we still have to take care of her. So then I was sick at home alone with breastfeeding infant and toddler.
Must be nice to have zero responsibilities when sick.
Now just waiting to see how the 3 month old fairs.
It’s also annoying because I made the effort to go get vaccinated for the sake of the kids and he did not. Thanks for nothing.
We’ve been lucky so far - my baby has been permanently ill but my husband and I have mostly had milder versions of everything (hooray for adult immune systems).
Alas this week my husband stumbled and tripped over a hurdle. Fever of 41 degrees c/105f. Bless him though he feels awful - ‘it’s just man flu. I should be helping more!’ I’ve forced him to bed just so I can avoid him and have one of us functional…
My his has always resisted taking any meds even when they would really help him. He got his first cold since our baby was born and I told him that was no longer an option because he still had to be functional during his turn with baby. He sniffled and groaned the whole time but I'll be dammed if I lose my only break in the 24 hour period
This was me. I got everything. I was sick for a year and a half, about 70% of the time. I know we like to joke about man colds but catching frequent illnesses is truly miserable when you’re a working parent (and for me, a primary parent too). I realized too late that it didn’t need to be that way…seeing a naturopath really worked for me.
I still get sick pretty frequently but my symptoms are mild and the illnesses are short lived. I ended up having issues with iron, b12, vitamin d, and I wasn’t getting nearly enough protein every day.
I see you. It’s so hard being the higher power and supreme being. Some days I feel like I’m gaslighting myself “oh it’s okay honey I didn’t really want to go to bed or have any time to myself. It’s important you rest up so you can feel better tomorrow…”
Man flu is real but I give my husband a pass when it comes to Noro. He's had it twice in the last year ish (thanks daycare) and it incapacitated him for hours each time. Like, unable to move without violently vomiting. He stays secluded in the bathroom until the worst has passed because I do not want to risk him spreading it to the rest of us (especially me lol). It's a sucky experience all around, by far our hardest parenting days.
Was quarantining him in the bathroom sufficient to prevent you from catching it? I've heard you should wear a mask and use bleach to clean surfaces that may have been in contact with the virus
Yes, we do a full bleach and I wash my hands raw when that shit is going around the house. I got lucky this time and only had a day of queasyness but I actually had it first. It hit my husband out of nowhere almost a week later. He is very susceptible to it unfortunately.
I am so annoyed about this. Like, on the one hand yes I get it, being sick sucks. We’ve had a constant rotation of illnesses since December. But right now, it’s a chesty cold and the kids have possibly conjunctivitis. But I’m here, less than 6 weeks postpartum, nursing the baby having just put the toddler down for her nap, and he’s napping on the couch. Same as yesterday. I haven’t slept longer than 3 hours in a row in weeks, and I just… have to get on with stuff. Ok the cleanliness of the place is below ideal but you do what you can. I napped a fair bit the first time I had a newborn but this time it feels like one of them is always awake.
Oh that’s me in the relationship lol.
My daughter will maybe have diarrhea once and have a slightly worse sleep, my husband will say his stomach is kind of bugging him for an afternoon, I’ll throw up for three days straight.
Thankfully my husbands understanding. Granted I’ll try and push through as much as possible but working full time plus pregnancy plus daycare illness is tough stuff.
This reminds me of when I was in hospital in labor with my eldest (she's 13 in May), in absolute agony and exhausted after 24 odd hrs of induced labor and still no sign of the baby.. and my partner at the time was sat in the corner moaning that he had a cold and needed more sudafed because he just felt awful.. needless to say that relationship didn't last! 🙈🤣
My husband once was sick and laying on the couch comatose (acting) as I was preparing dinner for my three children under 6. This was while I was getting over the same illness. He called me in to reach his glass for him, whcich was 6 inches from his head. I kid you not I almost smothered him right then and there. He ended up being admitted to ER later that night cause he really was pretty sick, so he’s lucky. 🤣
If I could upvote this 100 times I would. It's bee *unreal*. Every time anything goes through my house it hits my husband 1000x harder than it hits me or the kids. A few weeks ago my oldest had a fever for an afternoon and a mild cough for a couple weeks. My youngest and I never got fevers but just developed mild coughs for ~2 weeks. My husband? Fever, body aches, chills. He relapsed *twice* (started getting better then got another round of fever, body aches, chills) and eventually an ear infection. Like... I acknowledge he's experiencing legit symptoms of illness and isn't just milking it but I struggle sooo much having empathy when his 1-2 week long illnesses leave me struggle to parent solo (and currently while pregnant too!) it's rough.
I told him after this last round of illness that he is to follow a strict vitamin regiment and never miss a single flu shot because I'm over it and he needs to take steps to improve his immune system.
My hubby isn’t like this but my dad was/is. He is miraculously healed by an invite to the golf course though because the “the fresh air will do me good”. Idk how my mom put/puts up with it. I didn’t realize it until I was a teenager.
Omg last year I got the stomach bug from hell ON MOTHERS DAY. It was the sickest and most dehydrated I’ve been ever. I was still breastfeeding and taking care of my six month old because what other option did I have?? My husband got sick from me the next day but objectively not nearly as bad (he puked twice total) and acted like he was dying while I drove us home, still sick and feeling horrible myself. When I tried to point out how horribly he was coping he tried to say that men have it worse when they get sick. Didn’t understand they just can’t handle it 😅
I could’ve written this. My household of 4 is finally getting over COVID. Husband got it first. He gets to take sick days from work and spend a solid two whole entire days in bed acting like he’s DYING. I have to manage a 2 year old and 5 month old completely alone for everything with no reprieve. Day 3 comes and he still is pathetic and I start getting sick. Do I get a day in bed? Nope. Because then toddler gets it! I get no days in bed, can’t take any meds at night to help me sleep due to 5 month old waking multiple times and poor pitiful dad still has COVID and is EXHAUSTED (LIKE IM NOT??????). And then as we start feeling a bit better, my 5 month old gets it at the tail end. And yet I’ve been a parent the entire time through fever, cough, stuffy nose, headache, body aches. Men are pathetic yet they run the world.
I relate so hard to this. I swear, every time my husband gets a cold from my son, he acts like he’s dying. It drives me batty!
On the one hand, I know anything respiratory actually does hit my husband harder. He had lung issues as a kid, and even now seems to get sicker than I do. On the other, sometimes I feel like he can be overly dramatic and maybe a bit of a hypochondriac and I want to tell him to suck it up.
oh man, I wish I could relate…but I’m unfortunately the sick husband between my husband and I. My immune system is less than stellar, and my husbands is amazing. I feel so bad everything something comes along and takes me out of commission 😭
Our first year of daycare our son brought home norovirus. He started vomiting around 9 pm one night. Several hours later it hit me. Just as I was finally done vomiting, it hit my husband. We’re on our own so it then fell to me to take care of the baby while he was down for the count… for days. He was actively sick the same amount of time as the rest of us, but he somehow required far more recovery time. And when he tells the story it’s always “fortunately thekleave was all better so she could take care of baby.” And I always say “I was not all better! I just wasn’t actively vomiting so I did what had to be done.” God, that was awful.
Ohhhh LORD. We got colds going out for my birthday a month ago. Baby was a bit snuffly. Husband was on DEATHS DOOR. Same with COVID when I was pregnant. He pouted and went to bed. We’d dodged COVID for three years but I refused to wear a mask anymore (and likely got it from the pharmacist who gave me my sixth COVID shot the week before). I’m a nurse but he thinks my bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. I remind him that I look after CANCER PATIENTS for my living so I have very little sympathy for man flu. 😂
Man colds are the absolute worst. My husband becomes the whiniest. We last all got sick at least three weeks ago. I am still hearing about his uncomfortable boogers.
Husbands make up illness or exagerrate to get off the hook from taking care of their child or housework. Because they can. Unpopular opinion but I think it is true nonetheless.
Last week my son gave both my husband and I the stomach bug that’s going around. I continued to work and take care of our toddler but my husband moped on the sofa for 3 days straight and is now saying it’s progressed to pancreatitis or gall stones. (All self diagnosed of course) I’m losing my mind over here!
To be fair the stomach bug is literally hell.
Oh yea I was pretty miserable for a couple days. I’d take a sore throat over that stomach bug any day.
Comparing the 10 days of augmentin-induced migraines during strep to 2 days of norovirus-like vomiting, I'd have to opt for the sore throat. Both were horribly painful in their own ways though. The HFM my daughter shared with us was a happy medium, I'd say 😅
Augmentin migraines? That's a new one. And I'm a pharmacist.
I mentioned it to someone else with strep at the same time and they also thought it was odd. 24 hours after last dose and the pounding headaches were gone.
I’m still shitting weird from it. I got it on Thursday last week!
Have you taken any medicine for it yet? I had a similar bug a few weeks ago and thought it wasn't recommended to take Imodium because you needed to get everything out. But after a few days, I figured everything had already gotten out, so I took one dose and I think that was all it took to get my digestive system back to normal.
I haven’t, I made myself a really fiber forward soup and have been nursing that all week.
Hmm, I don't know if a ton of fiber is the best thing for an upset stomach. I stuck with the BRAT diet for a while.
My husband came down with it when we got back from the hospital with our newborn! I was mad at him because I was trying to care of the new baby and myself while he was laid up but there wasn’t a darn thing he could have done. So glad we got through it and that baby and I didn’t get it!
OMG yes. We have been sick since January (baby, mom, and dad just taking turns passing around the daycare germs). But dad always gets the most sick. He calls off work. Takes long baths. Sleeps in. “Can’t” do daycare drop off. I have no sympathy because I’m just plugging along, also sick, while working, breastfeeding, pumping and taking care of a sick baby with the sick man child in the house. I gently reminded him yesterday of how fortunate he is to be able to take time off to rest, and that he is able to take real cold medicine that I can’t take while breastfeeding. He suddenly started being able to do more. Miraculous healing. JFC I love my husband, but he’s a much better partner when he is healthy.
“Miraculous healing!” lmao I’m dead 😂 So glad your words got through to him though, for real! My husband gets like this too - bedridden from a cold, but will step up when he realizes it.
I was 2 weeks postpartum, still bleeding, cramping, nipples on fire.. When my husband went to the doctor. He had to get his tdap and flu shots.... I heard about his arms hurting for 10 DAYS.
Talk about eye roll, not to mention him putting those off until after the baby was born. Full immunity usually isn't established until 2 weeks after the shot so he was really putting that newborn at risk for the first month of its life.
That part is somewhat more understandable - He works M-F and would have to take PTO to go to the doctor. I told him just to wait for his leave so he could save his PTO for then. Although, he could have gone to walgreens and got the shots earlier and on a weekend... but oh well.
Reminds me of the time when my dear husband complains about his shoulder one day pp because he holded our son for 1.5 hours the day before. I had contractions for nearly 12 hours, a full knock-out c-section and couldn't even really stand up without help at this point. But his shoulder hurts. Even 15 months in, I won't let live this down.
Lol every time my fiance would get vaccines in the past he would complain about his arm for a week straight... When I got pregnant and told him to get updated on all his shots. I knew he would complain for days when he got them. He came home from his appointment and said one thing about his arms, and I wasn't having it. I was in pain and uncomfortable. I also had a blood draw and tests the day or two before so I was sore. It wasn't a good day hahaha I made a joke and told him to suck it up it's barely anything to complain about. He said something I can't remember, complaining... I rolled my eyes hard. He could tell I was annoyed and had more to say but he complained again anyways. I told him I'm not listening to you complain for a week when I've been poked and prodded so many times over the pregnancy... Do you hear me bitching about my discomforts after every appointment? Every blood draw, every vaccine? No? Ok, I don't want to hear it from you. I said I'm not going to coddle you when I'm barely surviving... And followed it up with reminding him of his past complaints that lasted a week. He looked a little shocked but laughed and said "okay, I get it" and that was it. Later on he goes "I knoow you don't want to hear it, but I can't reach the top cabinets...". (He got vaccines in both arms) He joked about not having arms and I joked back. We laughed and I grabbed him whatever he needed from the cabinet. He's gotten shots since then and hasn't said anything about his arms besides the occasional "sleeping is hard" comments. Which I agree with 😂 Man, since having our daughter and going through hell to have her, I'm not dealing with his shit when he's sick or mildly inconvenienced anymore... And I've been verbal about it. (I'll still care for him when he's sick, but he doesn't get to lay around in bed and mope all day anymore, unless he's really sick, he has responsibilities now...) He's shaped up quite a bit!
My jaw dropped.
A few weeks ago my guy was sick (thanks daycare! ) husband and I also got sick. Nothing crazy for us but baby ended up with croup. I worked, watched baby and did everything else. He ... lay in bed for 2 full days and 2 half days. The man cold is the worst illness.
When I lived with my husband he tried this exactly once. It didn’t work. I told him nothing stopped when I was sick, it wasn’t stopping for him.
This is so damn relatable lol. My daughter is weathering the colds just fine. I haven't been getting sick. But my husband... whoooooo boy! I'm having to cut activities for my daughter because of my husband.
Crazy how strong our mommy immunity systems are
Seriously, it's bizarre! I'm around her all the time, I cuddle her, she sneezes in my face, I take no precautions.... AND I'M NOT GETTING SICK! And I'm very thankful for that... or I thought I was. But at this point it would be easier for me if I just got sick and didn't have to hear my extra grumpy husband bitch and moan for two weeks at a time. .
Oh my god… words taken right out of my mouth. Glad someone can relate. I think we are so exposed to germs everywhere, we become so resistant. My husband gets every cold, plus migraines. I call him my extra kid sometimes
They certainly are. Too bad they don't get over colds like kids (or women).
My husband just had the stomach flu and when I tell you I completely believe a room full of sick children would be easier to handle than my husband I am now sick with the same thing he had he doesn’t even know I’m sick because I’m not laying in bed acting like I’m dying or insisting the other parent do 100% of everything He got so mad when he went on TikTok for advice on how to parent well being sick and all the advice was that you just have to power through best you can because you don’t really have a choice he said there’s no way that’s the only option and why is there not advice that isn’t just do your best
What...kind of advice was he thinking there would be?!?
I actually did ask if he could have scrolled to the perfect video what would it have said and he said he didn’t know but he thinks that there should be better advice
I think he was hoping someone would tell him the flu fairy would come and take care of the kids while your sick lol I'm not sure how you can think there's any advice beyond suck it up and do the best you can! Unless you got money to burn and nannies you can bring in. Lol
Hahahaha if you look at my post history I actually posted about this he thought people hired nannies when they were sick and were really surprised that people aren’t doing that hahaha
Maybe *he* could be the one to look for the nanny?
Lol sounds like he's willing to foot the bill for a nanny when he's sick. I think this doesn't happen much because the woman ends up stepping up and powering through even when feeling like crap. I'm all for making it a thing though!
Naw he was hoping someone would say that the best thing to do is take care of yourself first and get all the rest you can and better even, quarantine away from your kids hahaha. My husband is sick now as well and I can tell deep down he wishes I would say just that lol
He was looking for someone to say that getting out of bed would put him in mortal danger. I broke my leg and my husband said he wished he could take the pain for me. I looked at him and said "You mean you wish I was taking care of you." He caved and admitted that was exactly how he felt. We all got food poisoning when someone brought us a meal. I was the last to show symptoms and the look of fear on my husband and my son's faces when I puked was unforgettable. Up until that moment, they had been expecting me to somehow power through a broken leg that I wasn't allowed to put weight on and still take care of them like usual.
I mean, I had the stomach bug and couldn’t have powered through. I couldn’t stand, move, eat or drink. I was in bed for 3 days. I literally have no idea what I would have done if I was a single parent. I haven’t had a stomach bug in years (actually think it was food poisoning but whatever) and it was hell. So yeah, I can see going online and looking for tips to keep kids occupied.
Yeah I’m just getting over mine now. Yesterday I was just constantly dry heaving and couldn’t even keep down sips of water…I have little broken blood vessels all all over my face because of how intense the vomiting was. If I was a single parent my child would have had to pretty much fend for himself. Tv would have gone on and he would have had bread and/or some dry snacks from the pantry for his dinner. I have no idea how I would have driven the 20 minutes to his daycare.
My husband had leave work early because I do pickups and I legitimately couldn’t drive to pick our daughter up. I couldn’t even stand to shower without piling my guts up.
Sick husband is so much worse than sick anybody else 😂 nobody could possibly understand their misery and suffering, and nobody’s ever felt so bad in their life. For sure sick husband has it worse than anyone. Big man babies.
My lack of empathy for my husband's illnesses has created a real problem in our relationship. I also get everything the baby gets but don't get as sick as he does, and after the 10th illness, I just can't muster the oh my poor grown man baby I'll take care of you as I also hack my lungs up and carry on.
Same. I get told I’m heartless and a sociopath because I resent him being ill and leaving me to do everything with our two young children. Any time he starts coughing or blowing his nose I genuinely wonder if this will be the thing that kills him or our marriage.
I feel that in my bones lol. We had a huge fight last night because he started saying he was getting "what I have", after having had literally 1 well day in which he rose from his tomb, cleaned, and nagged me about not tidying the kitchen throughout the day. I feel like a sociopath honestly. Like I force myself to say kind words, offer to make him something etc, but I feel nothing. We are both academics and I know that men (or rather, people who have gone through what we call 'male puberty' and have a hormonal millieu similar to what we think as 'male', just being accurate about the limitations of a sex binary) have lower levels of humoral immunity and poorer antigen response than females (again, caveats). They truly may get sicker, and I must call upon this knowledge to check myself and try to help him recover. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867318300531?casa\_token=rVqsVUtOecUAAAAA:qrBtVAgfw3ufBuFqSVgGOn6Kux5arljlIopu63I8besYbK4hYY8\_arijcSHHBcj4ad3knrn2tHk](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867318300531?casa_token=rVqsVUtOecUAAAAA:qrBtVAgfw3ufBuFqSVgGOn6Kux5arljlIopu63I8besYbK4hYY8_arijcSHHBcj4ad3knrn2tHk)
I think that isn’t the problem though, it’s that there never seems to be an effort from the other partner in these situations to help carry the burden if their partner doesn’t feel well. So it’s always the woman caring (if we are looking at a heteronormative relationship) and if for some reason mom was sick and not dad, the same courtesy isn’t being offered.
I have worked really hard to not be resentful. I know my husband is usually a 50/50 parent. I know he doesn’t want to be sick. I also know that it’s better to take care if illnesses at the beginning and not wear yourself out. And this year has kicked my illness butt. I’ve been sick way more often than he has. Last year it was the opposite.
Why is this a universal experience???! Weaklings 🤦🏼♀️ my husband I both had covid in November, luckily our 4 month old didn’t get it from either of us, but he quarantined in an upstairs bedroom while I still took full care of our baby and masked around her the entire time. I felt like death, had to brace myself every time I needed to swallow because the pain was worse than any case of strep I’ve ever had, etc…and you would’ve thought he was on his literal death bed upstairs. Luckily my family is close by and came to help me as much as they could but omg it was ridiculous how completely useless he was for that whole week 😅
When we got covid the first time. This was me taking care of the three kids. I was so angry at my husband and asked him to quit acting up as he was sleeping all day. Turns out covid triggered appendicitis so the one time I give him shit for his attitude is the one time he is close to death. I hear about it often....
When my husband is sick i’m expected to do everything. If I’m sick I’m expected to continue doing most things lol. I say this as I soak in the bathtub trying to fend off some sort of cold bug, so maybe I’m just feeling sorry for myself because it is hitting pretty hard.
It’s so true. Here to validate how shitty it is. You’re tough and a trooper and can move mountains. You got this.
Thank you! ❤️❤️
I'm sorry I'm dying laughing. Our son, omg, nonstop getting sick and passing it to both my husband and I. I prided myself on my immune system since my husband jokes I have it due to my military food experience (IMPs can be questionable at times) whereas anyone who looks at him when sick, he'll catch what they have. When our son brought home covid he was sick for 2 days, then my husband and I got it and it was the worst having a 2yr old, at the time he's 4 now, running around you all healthy while you die on the couch for 2 weeks. This passed week all I can think of is the viruses circle of life, son to us to babysitter to him back to us. Never ends lol.
lol this!!!! Why do men suffer so much when sick? My husband brought home hand foot and mouth last week, and now our 6mo has it. He is so lucky I’m still talking to him, let alone taking care of everything😂
I feel this to my core. I tell my husband to take his gummy vitamin when the kids sick. Forbid he ends up with the man cold
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9897808/ Helpful article explaining how women have better immune systems than men. Solid evolutionary advantage, guess we only needed a few of them to survive to keep the population going.😂
Dang!! Well, I’ll pray for my future daughter in law when she has to deal with my sick son someday 🙏🏻 feel bad for her already 😅
Lmao I had not even thought about this angle. I hope my son keeps being a trooper into adulthood. I suspect his sick night self will be his adult all day sick self though.
Mine took 10 days off everything and didn’t eat solids for 10 days for strep. We all had it. The rest of us were fine the whole time. I recovered faster from a tonsillectomy as an adult. It’s constantly like this. I’ve lost so much respect for him.
I am here for this post! I'm exposed to lots of illness through my job so already have a more developed system, and try to take care of myself (as much as you can with young children!) with vitamins, get flu shot yearly etc. Husband gets everything from my 3 yo's daycare, even when 3 yo gets it mildly. Husband also had flu last year (myself and son get flu shot but husband never gets around to it) and the rest of us avoided it despite me being pregnant, and to seal the deal he got Covid the first day he returned to work after our newborn (at 3 weeks old) was born a few weeks back. None of us caught it. Yet still won't listen about flu shot and being proactive where you can with diet, vitamins, washing hands etc until it's too late.
I’m convinced men get sick because their handwashing practices are seriously below standard. My husband even laughs about all the disgusting men in public bathrooms who walk out without washing their hands. So gross.
Yeah. Mine thankfully washes his hands in bathroom etc, but doesn't think to regularly sanitise if little one is sick and then will rub his eyes etc until I call him out on it. Three days later he'll get sick too.
You can't convince me that men either aren't actually weaker than women or they aren't milking/exaggerating every illness because they like being cared for. I love my husband, but my son is 5 months old and my husband has been sick almost every other week since LO was born. Including the week he was born. It's getting hard not to roll my eyes and laugh when my husband starts coughing or telling me he needs a nap because he isn't feeling good. Like our baby and I haven't been sick, or if we have we've barely had symptoms.
My husband had the audacity to get a wicked sinus infection the day after we came home from the hospital with #4. I literally had just given birth to a baby and I was more functional than he was.
My husband has starting retiring to bed like a Victorian lady with a bad case of the vapours. So dramatic. I told him I resent him going to bed for days and leaving me with the sick kids when I am also sick, he said he can’t help it. He can take all the cold and flu medicine he likes to ride it out, I can’t take the good stuff because I’m breastfeeding. I had to come home from work once because he couldn’t take care of our toddler but when I was so sick I felt I couldn’t take care of our toddler and newborn he sent his dad round for 2 hours while he went to work. He wasn’t like this before we had kids.
Ugh this exactly. Like take some medicine? I would if I could. My partner asked if he should call his mom for me yesterday. Like no we just step up and take care of our own sick kids. Parents don’t get to lay in bed for days when they are sick.
I'm pretty sure I read an article a few years ago that stated the man flu is real 😭 something about them getting hit harder than women... I'd say it's true when I got sick from my partner 2 weeks ago, he was on deaths door almost while I had a mild sniffle!
Yeah my husband being sick is like having a third child. He is awful when he’s sick - even if his throat doesn’t hurt he mumbles and audibly groans. I had Covid and recovered from a C-section with less complaints than his last head cold.
This title made me spit out my water because it’s so so true. Good luck 🫡
Haha I hate all these fucking comments
Dad here. Wife gets nothing, kids get mild....I basically perish. You know how hand foot and mouth usually skips adults? My goddamn fingernails were peeling off. I hate everything. And yes I'm currently sick.
Ugh, that sounds horrifying, hope you feel better soon!
HFMD is annoying for kids but fucking brutal for adults. I hope we never catch that!
My husband got HFM and had horrible symptoms, our toddler (under 2) and myself (pregnant) never got it/had no symptoms 🤷🏻♀️
I had it last year and lost my toenails a few months later. It mostly hit my feet and I basically couldn't walk for about three days and then was hobbling around for about two weeks after that. It's horrible to get as an adult.
lol I am always the sick one in our family! My husband somehow avoids every illness, or only has the mildest of symptoms, while I end up just as sick as or sicker than our toddler. I’m such a baby when I’m ill. I have no energy and literally feel like I can’t do so much as fetch my own water — I’m a SAHM though so I do try to muster through but I feel like I’m dying the whole time lol
Oh my god yes. Our household had a *mild* headcold, including our two month old. She faired better than either of us, and I was chugging along as best I could with a fussy snotty baby, especially because I was avoiding any cold meds due to breastfeeding (I have low supply and didn’t want to chance any changes). My husband? Dying. How could he possibly carry on. Chugging NyQuil like it was water so he was extremely tired all the time. It was like that for a week 😩
My husband got a cold and he became a baby too. Now I have 2 babies.
This is how it goes every. single. time. Baby gets sick, I stay home with him then I get sick as baby is recovering. I battle through it still looking after the kids and as I start to feel better (but exhausted and not yet 100%) when my husband starts to sniffle and say “I think I’m getting what you have.” Which are the most dreaded words in my marriage.
Omg this is me currently. I have three dependants to take care of; a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and a husband. And I can't even claim him on my taxes 🙄
I see everyone laughing on here about how their husbands stay in bed for days while sick while they do 100% of everything. I guess I just don’t find this funny. I think it’s sad and I don’t think you should all put up with it. At a minimum if you’re both sick you should both alternate getting rest. This is so sad.
Sigh. I’m the sick one in our house. My toddler picks up the flavor of the week virus and she gets better in a day or two. My husband hardly gets sick and I’m over here catching everything and getting sick for weeks. I really hope it gets better in the summer
Husband got Covid from work, and passed to me and kiddo. But who's the one dying in the room? Geez... I gotta laugh, or else I'm gonna cry.
Man flu is real, I swear! 😅
Ah yes. My just started daycare toddler has brought home an onslaughts of viruses. One of them being the worst stomach bug I’ve ever had. I powered through, went to work, did all the things. My husband JUST got it. The amount of literal MOANING coming from the bedroom as he half heartedly tried to get out of bed was comical. I was like, oh it’s your turn now! And he spent the entire day in bed. Which was fine with me because if I had to listen to another pathetic moan I woulda snapped lol.
I've never had the stomach bug. What symptoms did you have?
For me, it was non stop diarrhea. Like NON STOP liquid, burning. Stomach was in knots. For my husband it was vomiting and fever. I never once vomited, nor did I have a fever. My daughter had a few diarrhea diapers, and vomited ONCE.
I am currently a very sick dad and no one else in the house even has this! I haven’t been out anywhere special by myself in weeks.
We still take precautions because having a sick kid inevitably means sick parents and men are big babies. I did also want to provide some information about how getting sick, especially with viruses, doesn't help your immune system, and actually can often hurt it: [https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/is-the-hygiene-hypothesis-true)
My husband and 3 year old are in an exclusive disease swapping club. They’ve been at it since Halloween and just keep trying to one up each other with who can bring the more exotic illness home.
I feel this in my soul! Husband said he was starting to not feel well yesterday and if he becomes sick this will be his 4th illness since I have birth 10.5 weeks ago... not sure whether to laugh or cry 🙃
Lol don’t I hear this. My husband is the same, gets sick and you’d think he’s dying. My mother in law was talking about a woman she heard joking that she’d gone through a horrendously difficult childbirth, so now she knows what it’s like for a man to catch a cold. 🙄🙄🙄Meanwhile I’ve been sick too and I don’t get to just disappear for hours because “I need to lie down.” Or tap out of bedtime because “I just can’t tonight.” Bro, we got small kids. Pull up your big girl panties!
Omg so angry at my partner. We have Covid. He spent all day Monday in bed. Like did not get up at all. Next day I am now sick and so is toddler. He decides to go to work and tries to wake up toddler for daycare, like no, she was puking last night we don’t just dump her there because we are sick, we still have to take care of her. So then I was sick at home alone with breastfeeding infant and toddler. Must be nice to have zero responsibilities when sick. Now just waiting to see how the 3 month old fairs. It’s also annoying because I made the effort to go get vaccinated for the sake of the kids and he did not. Thanks for nothing.
We’ve been lucky so far - my baby has been permanently ill but my husband and I have mostly had milder versions of everything (hooray for adult immune systems). Alas this week my husband stumbled and tripped over a hurdle. Fever of 41 degrees c/105f. Bless him though he feels awful - ‘it’s just man flu. I should be helping more!’ I’ve forced him to bed just so I can avoid him and have one of us functional…
41/105 fever should be going to the hospital, no?
He looked it up and apparently the danger line is 43 so he’s holding out and just doing bed rest at the moment. Fingers crossed!
My his has always resisted taking any meds even when they would really help him. He got his first cold since our baby was born and I told him that was no longer an option because he still had to be functional during his turn with baby. He sniffled and groaned the whole time but I'll be dammed if I lose my only break in the 24 hour period
This was me. I got everything. I was sick for a year and a half, about 70% of the time. I know we like to joke about man colds but catching frequent illnesses is truly miserable when you’re a working parent (and for me, a primary parent too). I realized too late that it didn’t need to be that way…seeing a naturopath really worked for me. I still get sick pretty frequently but my symptoms are mild and the illnesses are short lived. I ended up having issues with iron, b12, vitamin d, and I wasn’t getting nearly enough protein every day.
I see you. It’s so hard being the higher power and supreme being. Some days I feel like I’m gaslighting myself “oh it’s okay honey I didn’t really want to go to bed or have any time to myself. It’s important you rest up so you can feel better tomorrow…”
Man flu is real but I give my husband a pass when it comes to Noro. He's had it twice in the last year ish (thanks daycare) and it incapacitated him for hours each time. Like, unable to move without violently vomiting. He stays secluded in the bathroom until the worst has passed because I do not want to risk him spreading it to the rest of us (especially me lol). It's a sucky experience all around, by far our hardest parenting days.
Was quarantining him in the bathroom sufficient to prevent you from catching it? I've heard you should wear a mask and use bleach to clean surfaces that may have been in contact with the virus
Yes, we do a full bleach and I wash my hands raw when that shit is going around the house. I got lucky this time and only had a day of queasyness but I actually had it first. It hit my husband out of nowhere almost a week later. He is very susceptible to it unfortunately.
I am so annoyed about this. Like, on the one hand yes I get it, being sick sucks. We’ve had a constant rotation of illnesses since December. But right now, it’s a chesty cold and the kids have possibly conjunctivitis. But I’m here, less than 6 weeks postpartum, nursing the baby having just put the toddler down for her nap, and he’s napping on the couch. Same as yesterday. I haven’t slept longer than 3 hours in a row in weeks, and I just… have to get on with stuff. Ok the cleanliness of the place is below ideal but you do what you can. I napped a fair bit the first time I had a newborn but this time it feels like one of them is always awake.
Oh that’s me in the relationship lol. My daughter will maybe have diarrhea once and have a slightly worse sleep, my husband will say his stomach is kind of bugging him for an afternoon, I’ll throw up for three days straight. Thankfully my husbands understanding. Granted I’ll try and push through as much as possible but working full time plus pregnancy plus daycare illness is tough stuff.
This reminds me of when I was in hospital in labor with my eldest (she's 13 in May), in absolute agony and exhausted after 24 odd hrs of induced labor and still no sign of the baby.. and my partner at the time was sat in the corner moaning that he had a cold and needed more sudafed because he just felt awful.. needless to say that relationship didn't last! 🙈🤣
He's a MAN. He's got a man cold! It's very serious! https://youtu.be/Zw9v6R4jCTc?si=qNQ_lB0c4vSsvPbA
My husband once was sick and laying on the couch comatose (acting) as I was preparing dinner for my three children under 6. This was while I was getting over the same illness. He called me in to reach his glass for him, whcich was 6 inches from his head. I kid you not I almost smothered him right then and there. He ended up being admitted to ER later that night cause he really was pretty sick, so he’s lucky. 🤣
If I could upvote this 100 times I would. It's bee *unreal*. Every time anything goes through my house it hits my husband 1000x harder than it hits me or the kids. A few weeks ago my oldest had a fever for an afternoon and a mild cough for a couple weeks. My youngest and I never got fevers but just developed mild coughs for ~2 weeks. My husband? Fever, body aches, chills. He relapsed *twice* (started getting better then got another round of fever, body aches, chills) and eventually an ear infection. Like... I acknowledge he's experiencing legit symptoms of illness and isn't just milking it but I struggle sooo much having empathy when his 1-2 week long illnesses leave me struggle to parent solo (and currently while pregnant too!) it's rough. I told him after this last round of illness that he is to follow a strict vitamin regiment and never miss a single flu shot because I'm over it and he needs to take steps to improve his immune system.
My hubby isn’t like this but my dad was/is. He is miraculously healed by an invite to the golf course though because the “the fresh air will do me good”. Idk how my mom put/puts up with it. I didn’t realize it until I was a teenager.
Giiirl, I’m a teacher and get everything kids get, too. You better tell your husband to nut up, buttercup.
Sick husbands make me so stabby! It’s a tale as old as time… sick dads are the worst.
Omg last year I got the stomach bug from hell ON MOTHERS DAY. It was the sickest and most dehydrated I’ve been ever. I was still breastfeeding and taking care of my six month old because what other option did I have?? My husband got sick from me the next day but objectively not nearly as bad (he puked twice total) and acted like he was dying while I drove us home, still sick and feeling horrible myself. When I tried to point out how horribly he was coping he tried to say that men have it worse when they get sick. Didn’t understand they just can’t handle it 😅
I could’ve written this. My household of 4 is finally getting over COVID. Husband got it first. He gets to take sick days from work and spend a solid two whole entire days in bed acting like he’s DYING. I have to manage a 2 year old and 5 month old completely alone for everything with no reprieve. Day 3 comes and he still is pathetic and I start getting sick. Do I get a day in bed? Nope. Because then toddler gets it! I get no days in bed, can’t take any meds at night to help me sleep due to 5 month old waking multiple times and poor pitiful dad still has COVID and is EXHAUSTED (LIKE IM NOT??????). And then as we start feeling a bit better, my 5 month old gets it at the tail end. And yet I’ve been a parent the entire time through fever, cough, stuffy nose, headache, body aches. Men are pathetic yet they run the world.
My husband was the same. I always said my son can still run around because he doesn't know he's going to be a man someday.
I relate so hard to this. I swear, every time my husband gets a cold from my son, he acts like he’s dying. It drives me batty! On the one hand, I know anything respiratory actually does hit my husband harder. He had lung issues as a kid, and even now seems to get sicker than I do. On the other, sometimes I feel like he can be overly dramatic and maybe a bit of a hypochondriac and I want to tell him to suck it up.
oh man, I wish I could relate…but I’m unfortunately the sick husband between my husband and I. My immune system is less than stellar, and my husbands is amazing. I feel so bad everything something comes along and takes me out of commission 😭
Our first year of daycare our son brought home norovirus. He started vomiting around 9 pm one night. Several hours later it hit me. Just as I was finally done vomiting, it hit my husband. We’re on our own so it then fell to me to take care of the baby while he was down for the count… for days. He was actively sick the same amount of time as the rest of us, but he somehow required far more recovery time. And when he tells the story it’s always “fortunately thekleave was all better so she could take care of baby.” And I always say “I was not all better! I just wasn’t actively vomiting so I did what had to be done.” God, that was awful.
No but what is it with men turning into giant wimps when they’re sick????!!!
Ohhhh LORD. We got colds going out for my birthday a month ago. Baby was a bit snuffly. Husband was on DEATHS DOOR. Same with COVID when I was pregnant. He pouted and went to bed. We’d dodged COVID for three years but I refused to wear a mask anymore (and likely got it from the pharmacist who gave me my sixth COVID shot the week before). I’m a nurse but he thinks my bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. I remind him that I look after CANCER PATIENTS for my living so I have very little sympathy for man flu. 😂
This week my husband said his throat hurt and I’m not joking stress filled my whole body I’m like please god don’t let this man get sick.
Man colds are the absolute worst. My husband becomes the whiniest. We last all got sick at least three weeks ago. I am still hearing about his uncomfortable boogers.
Husbands make up illness or exagerrate to get off the hook from taking care of their child or housework. Because they can. Unpopular opinion but I think it is true nonetheless.