I had one of those wrenching mom-decisions this morning. Sean had stayed home from school yesterday (Wednesday) after getting sick Tuesday afternoon. This morning, he still looked and felt sick – had some abdominal pains. No fever, no real exterior symptoms. So I sent him off on the bus.
I called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for 10 am. The doctor’s going to refer him to a GI specialist (actually, Aidan’s very GI doctor, so that’s nice). She prescribed a muscle relaxant for the pain.
Kevin and I dropped Sean back off at school. Sean obviously didn’t want to go.
I went to the Post Office and when I came back I got a call from the school office, from a lady I know who goes to our church and is a friend. She said Sean was in the nurse’s office sleeping. He had left Geometry complaining of dizziness and stomach pain. She asked if I wanted her to put him on the early school bus but I said I’d pick him up and save him the 50 minutes of lurching and loudness.
So Kevin and I picked up our sleepy, slow moving teenage son in the van. Meanwhile, Aidan, who was in the car, was heating up with a temperature. He seems to have the cold that Sean had last week.
I don’t know — I told our friend at the school that I hated making those judgment calls. You just don’t have to do that as a homeschooler. You can let the kid have a day off. I remember that was one of my reasons for starting homeschooling. Should I support Liam’s teacher when I thought she was wrong? (for example, when she kept him in at recess because he had been too slow at finishing his class work?) Should I spend two hours in the evening with him helping him to complete homework that was essentially busywork, or should I just slough it off in order to have a bit of family time and thus send the message that homework wasn’t important?
Well, I did ask the doctor what to do when Sean got these episodes — they seem to hit about monthly — and she validated my instinct to keep him at home. I abrogated that instinct today and look what happened. But then, I don’t always want to be the one encouraging him to take it easy, either. Sigh.
I think if he has to stay home tomorrow though, the school staff won’t be surprised.
