Maybe Even More Mortherly

One of the most difficult aspects of parenting is when your kid gets sick. Of course, once they go to school, there's no end to the funky, gunky yuck they drag home. Weird coughs, runny noses, clammy bodies.

Here's what sucks for our kids: Kelly and I aren't what one would describe as the most empathetic and comforting parents. After all, we are the guys, who told Gus to "just walk it off" when he had several chunks of wood lodged into his knee (in our defense, we had no idea that it wasn't just a scraped knee.)

Recently, the boys introduced into our home the latest bug that's going around. One by one, it felled each of us. The remnants still remain, true to the kids' doctor's diagnosis that this particular virus is taking a while for people to shake.

Inconvenient and unpleasant, this bug has made the kids seek succor from their parents. That in turn has made Kelly and me work to be more compassionate, more patient, maybe even more motherly.