40 or 50 years ago if your child got a cold, the following problem would not have been an issue.

See our 7 year old is still sick. It’s Sunday evening and there is no chance he’ll be good to go come Monday morning.

Last Thursday he had a special athletics day at Griffith Uni and although he’d been looking a little pasty, I still packed him, smothered him in sunscreen and sent him on his way to the all day event. Phil went to pick him up from after school care that afternoon and before he could even ask about the medal tally, S greeted him with a technicolour spew at the front door.

So, off we go to the doctor again. Yes the SAME doctor who has seen the myriad of black eyes, school sores and bum boils that have presented themselves to him on at least one of my children in the last three weeks. This time it’s tonsilitus, ear infections and conjunctivitis. Cool.

Which Chinaman have we run over? Any big stories I’ve been too busy cleaning up vomit to catch on TV?

So, now we do the mum/dad dance. And it’s not the fun dance Dad likes to do most. No it’s the “Who stays home with the sick child Dance”

If my husband and I don’t work, we don’t get paid. So when it comes to who stays home with the sick child, who, well, stays home? Well more often than not - me. But seeing as our family is seeing more medical action than the Home and Away hospital of late, we are at a crossroads.

After a bit of discussion and seeing as it feels as if I haven’t had a full days’ work in three weeks, husband is staying home with S. He did the advising to his boss and then sat down and said “geez it sucks I feel so bad having a day off”. We both know our respective bosses are very cool and very generous when it comes to family, but it doesn’t mean we feel better about doing it.

I know, I’ll go get out my own violins.

It’s funny because I guess 40 or 50 years ago, they had bigger issues. Like whether the simple virus would turn into something far worse. Yet they still had more of the one thing we all want but can’t buy at the shops – more quality time with our family.