ILX Parenting 6: "Put Some Goddamn Pants On Before You Go Outside!" is a thing I say now

Sending thoughts

fuck sake. I'm so sorry this is happening nick. hang in there. it will be a bit of a bumpy ride no doubt.

jfc my sympathies. keep yr head up kid

Good luck to you and your kid!

get wlel l'il sciko

omg, sicky. my heart goes out to you and yours.

Thank you everyone. They might only be little ilx posts but they mean a lot.

hugs from across the pond, wot wot

dang wishing you all strength

ffs! I'm so sorry. Good wishes to you all for a fast track to a happy ending.

Scik, that is terrible to have to deal with. All the best to you and yours!

<3 to all of you & esp yr little one

oh scik, I'm so so sorry. of course I will respect your privacy. sending lots of love

Fuck, Nick. So hugely sorry you’re all going through this. Shout if there are things we can do

Been in Bristol for 24+ hours now. I’m seeing a lot of the M5.

bet that seems like a long drive. i emailed u on your ilx profile address btw just in case we can help with anything practical.

It is LCH. Prognosis is ok but not great.

Kinder, feel free to message Em. I’m not sure that address for me works anymore- try njsouthall at gmail dot com

just saw this - so sorry man, sending best wishes

will re-send - don't feel obliged to reply unless you want to.
your poor little guy - can't imagine what you're feeling - everything crossed for you.

Nick I'm so sorry :( Fingers crossed bebe will recover and thrive well <3

Chucked a thing on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/njsouthall/posts/10101195655605614

I am glad he is doing ok at the moment & that the rash is clearing up. Encouraging news is still good news! but my god what a load for you all to carry. Sending all my love to all of you, again, still, continually xo <3

As somebody who works for a cancer charity (for a type of cancer which proportionately affects quite a lot of children) and so, seeing parents go through things like this more than I suppose most people do, I still have absolutely no idea how parents do get through things like this. Lots of love and strength to you all.

Wife and I were having an argument. E (3) picks up the handheld vacuum and yells "Stop arguing! If you argue I'm going to vacuum!" *runs vacuum*

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl6Pfa3H4Ea/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=2wfihn1zql9a

He’s doing pretty well.

aww <3

<3 beautiful

Chemo and steroids started today. He’s still super happy and well, which is good. The oncology ward want to send us home next week - as he’s not ‘poorly’ there’s little point him being an inpatient.

Glad he's ok in himself. Would you need to come back up?
Loads of positive vibes your way.

Aw what a sweetface. Sending happy healthy kid vibes your way!

Yeah we might need to come back up, depending how it goes.

Really good day today - took him out for a couple of hours (as you saw!) and they’ve said if his meds go well over the weekend they can discharge him Monday. Brain MRI came back clear, first bone marrow sample came back clear. It seems he’s not as poorly / complex as Exeter feared. Still got 1-2 years of treatment and a lifetime of keeping an eye out in store, but having spent the last few days on an actual oncology ward we are doing very well.

We were having lunch in Friska in Bristol yesterday, and N shared Em's noodle bowl thing. Em went to the toilet when they'd nearly finished an I was helping N spoon up the last of the broth.

"You could just pick it up with your hands and drink it now, if you wanted" I said.

N plunges her hands into the lukewarm broth and attempts to shovel it into her mouth.

"I meant pick up the bowl."

can't imagine what you're going through...my daughter had to have tubes put in her ears which is like a 10 minute surgery but I still lost sleep over it. you care about them so much more than you ever cared about yourself. the bill was $9500 by the way.

I had that surgery twice as a kid, I dont recall it being too traumatic :) (I was more traumatised by the initial perforated ear/middle ear infection tbh)

$9500 though jesus america :(

ahahaha thats awesome

God knows what we'd have had to pay if this were in the US.

Anyway, I don't want to have killed this thread with baby cancer. Talk about your kids!

sleep regression is hitting HARD here. I was up until 5am yesterday before I finally went to bed, then up a couple hours later. slept a couple of hrs last night but up at 4am for the day.

He just won't be put down to sleep! his brain's gone haywire ;_;

Any ILX mums on here atm?

I am a mum/mom! But I’m rarely on ilx these days! I’m going to say I qualify though ;)

How old is the wee one, kinder?

Hi. F started school five weeks ago. How time flies.

I was thinking of you two! smallest is 8 months. eldest had another year before starting school but suddenly seems very grown up. He's started pre school rather than nursery and I'm realising what you accomplish between 9.00 drop off and 3pm pickup IE NOTHING

(^^by 'you' i mean 'me' there)

How old is your little boy, rrobyn?
I guess I was going to ask how you feel about work/life balance. Apols to anyone who's already put up with me fretting about this but I'm wondering about taking some time out of work. Life is different with two but also with getting towards school, juggling school holidays etc. Then even if it would make practical/financial sense how much do I want to be a SAHM? Depends what kind of day I've had with the threenager and non-sleeper...

My son just turned 4, which I can’t quite believe! He’s been in daycare since he was 12 months old (it’s well subsidized by govt here in Montreal/Quebec, thankfully), so I was able to get back to more full time hours at that point. I’m freelance though, so I was taking some writing/editing jobs before then. I know that life would be more of a juggle if I had to be at a job on time every day and stay there for 8 hours and commute etc. And that’s with 1 kid! I know lots of moms who do it and have become v good at planning ahead!

4?!
Yeah my eldest has been in daycare 3 days/week since 12 months old too. Working part-time was a really good balance, nursery is flexible although expensive, we usually had fun on my days 'off' although they were exhausting. and 'balance' being the key word - I don't think I could put in any extra at work without something else slipping. With two, and living in a new town, things look a lot different.
We seem to focus on starting school as being the 'end point' at which you don't need to pay for childcare but it's dawned on me that's when things get tricky without FT childcare available!

Gah yes, managing child care for school-aged children can be a major headache - even if their school day more or less corresponds to your workday most of the time, there are all kinds of wrinkles.

Snow days, sick days. Early release days. Conferences. Teacher workdays. Minor holidays that they have off and you don't. Missing the bus. Needing to intervene in the middle of the day for this or that problem.

I worked from home for the last 5 years or so, and that helped a lot. But I just started an office job with a commute. We will make it work but not without anxiety.

my kids' school informed us last Friday that, uh, SPIDERS had been discovered, spiders that could BITE and HURT and that the school would need to be fumigated which will take..... a week

this is the week before half term, so suddenly we're looking at arranging an extra week of full-time childcare in advance of the childcare already arranged for the actual holiday, and we have the weekend to do that in

False widows?

I’ve taken off three days for the half term break next week only for Granny to decide to visit on those exact same days. Luckily, we really need to finish some decorating, so that’s my holiday.

oof.

yep false widows. we have discovered some in our house too and.. they're kind of nbd??

Speaking as an ecologist with some ecotoxicological insight, I’d handle a False Black Widow any day, but wouldn’t go within 3m of whatever these guys need protective suits for https://t.co/KYrTdRg2fk

— Steve Ormerod (@SteveOrmerod) October 15, 2018