Monday mornings are pretty good days. Especially when we have a really good weekend as we did. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Newburyport, Mass visiting my Mom for her 84th birthday, the first one since Dad passed.
It takes anywhere between 3-1/2 - 4 hours for us to make the trek to Newburyport, which is about 2 hours further than it was when Mom and Dad lived in Avon, CT. Life changes, and here we are traveling a little further to celebrate Mom's birthday. Anyway, it was a nice visit, as it always is. I get to see my Mom, and my sister as well since her and my brother-in-law live right there (my sister truly looks after Mom) in the same town. The only downside to the visit was that the weather turned pretty sour and we had between a 5-6 inch snowfall overnight, which compounded our return home.
Prior to this trip, Matthew had been on a Dad-imposed "house arrest" since Tuesday. It sounds pretty rough, and it is somewhat. Basically, a Dad-imposed "house arrest" is a no TV week (seven days), which arose from a disrespect episode from a few days earlier. A no TV week means no TV, no video games, nothing; just reading or playing. This is tough to enforce since Matthew has a twin brother who had no sanctions imposed. Usually, I can deal with the push-back I get, but what I hadn't taken in account was the trip to Massachusetts during the upcoming weekend. As Saturday drew closer, I became aware that something had to be done. On Saturday morning, just as we were leaving, I advised Matthew that sanctions would be lifted for the trip only, and that as soon as we got home on Sunday he could not enjoy the same 16:9 liberties his brother could. He was fine with that (I have to admit, he took his punishment pretty well overall).
When Monday morning arrived, Matthew had a wicked little cough, kind of a bark. I knew that if I sent him to school, Nurse Jen would be calling somewhere around 10.30 saying that Matthew had a temperature (which means no temperature, just coughing all over the school and making others sick... trust me, I've been down tis road before), so I decided to keep him home. As I left to take Neal to the bus stop (the end of the street) I could see the sadness in Matthew's face that today would be extremely long knowing no TV, and no video games would be allowed.
As I waited for the bus, I called my wife and asked for her input. She said, "do what you think is right". When I returned about 10 minutes later, I announced to Matthew that restrictions would be lifted and one hour of TV would be allowed. This primarily happened because I had painting to do in our family room, which needed completion before Friday when new furniture is to arrive. The only way to get things done is to let children enjoy the things they love... TV.
When I finished my work, I took Matthew to Subway for lunch, which was wonderful. We talked, laughed and joked, and had a really nice time. He was so much fun to be with. When we returned home I was in good spirit, and done with work for the day so we played "Angry Birds", and "Cut The Rope". What I experienced was a wonderful Father/Son day with a little boy who enjoyed it just as much. These days are truly memorable when they are one on one.
To me, a "sick day" is a day to either take care of your sick child, or enjoy a special moment with them that they will always remember.
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