Sick, Whiny Boy

I seriously hate it when Scott gets sick.

Apparently when he was young his mother managed to make the earth stop spinning and time stand still if he got as much as a sniffle. Because that's exactly what he expects me to do when he gets sick now.

Usually he wants me to stay home and take care of his whims. When I do go to work (which is purely for his safety) he calls 27 times asking me to bring home any number of random things (more cold medicine, a new book, cookies, "something fun" - grr). Once I get home it's umpteen-million requests for "something to drink, my throat hurts" or something to eat. I was unaware that the common cold had such a devastating effect on the man's legs.

Now I was raised by a different type of mom. You pretty much had to be near death to get out of school, and if you were that sick well then you were going to the doctor as well. My mom's response to a cold is to give you the right medicine and some tissue and send you packing. If I get a cold I get up in the morning,take my medicine and go to work (I do try to quarantine myself so as not to infect everyone).

Many of my married friends say that their husbands behave similarly when they fall ill. So that makes me wonder - is this a nature vs. nurture thing? Does it depend on the early parenting?

To answer the question we have a case study - JJ. He is 5 years old and consistently blows any illness or injury out of proportion. JJ is our dear friend's youngest and only boy. Now M and I have discussed how similar our mothers parenting styles seemed to be, and that her parenting style is very much the same (as mine would be were I a parent). She guarantees that not a lot of babying is going on.

So I think we can say that by nature men (and boys) are big whiny babies!

Stalker Clock says 4 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes and 26 seconds till I'm "wheels down" in Oakland!

Current Music: Shut-Up and Smile - Bowling For Soup