athelas

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.