by Aja Dorsey Jackson
Last week both of the kids and I became sick with the flu. They were sick first, but of course by the time they were back to running and playing, I felt like I had been hit by a truck and was fighting the worst version of the flu I’ve ever experienced. By Tuesday I had a temperature of 104, but I still felt like it was extremely important that I get the mud spots out of the carpet that someone had tracked into the basement. As I was on my hands and knees scrubbing, feeling like I was somewhere between throwing up and passing out, I heard a little voice say “Why don’t you just go sit down somewhere?”
Since I was sick enough to be hearing little voices, I took the voice’s advice. I stopped feeling bad about staying home from work and using my sick days. I watched my son engage in his favorite activity, which is making sure that everything that is not on the floor ends up on the floor, and made no movement to try and stop him. I let my husband pile up dishes beside the sink like they were going to disappear via magic dish fairy and looked at them and went to sleep. I called my sister and asked if she could bring tea and juice and she did. I scaled down to the most essential parts of my mommy/wife job description and did as close to nothing as possible until I got well and did not feel bad about it.
Today I feel better and learned a valuable lesson from being sick; I don’t have to do it all. The world did not stop turning without me. When I couldn’t do things, the people around me became resourceful and handled them on their own. The other things could wait until I got better.
There are so many songs about being Superwomen that being able to juggle 100 different things and doing it all has become a source of pride. But constantly walking around with an “S” on your chest not only leaves you little time to take care of yourself, it also lets everyone else think that you never need any help. I am not Superwoman, I am not Wonderwoman, and I’m certainly not every woman. I’m one woman, and to me that should be more than enough.
Aja Dorsey Jackson is a freelance writer and marketing consultant in Baltimore, Maryland. She is author of the blog www.babybumping.blogspot.com. Visit her at www.ajadorseyjackson.com.