Cold & Flu Season | Parents discuss surviving sickness with young children

Tips for coping with illness when you have babies or toddlers... This is the one where Emma and Elliot chat (mostly moan) about having colds and the family all coming down with a sickness bug. A surprisingly funny & silly episode, despite the lovely topic! The challenges of parenting through illness, all the extra washing, how it affects our kids, sleep, being off school & work, worrying about your baby's health, trips to the hospital - and all that fun stuff! Plus advice and suggestions for how to survive, shortcuts, tips, favourite comfort food and more.

Previous episodes mentioned in the podcast: Illness Central | Parents discuss nursery and childcare

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Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.

A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening attempting an artistic or creative activity. 

We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:00 Parenting Achievements
• 5:29 Challenges & struggles
• 21:29 Surviving & Tips
• 44:00 Doctors & Hospitals
• 52:00 Ending

Transcript

 So Emma, what's our topic for today? Illness, constant illness.

Welcome back everyone to the Crippen household. Ready for some parenting conversation about babies and toddlers. You join us in the imaginary borough, deep underground with all the fluffy animals hibernating over the winter. It's the worms. No, no. It's very cozy. There's no, there's no, uh, slimy animals.

It's quite civilized. Only fluffy animals, ones that are friendly. Like rabbits badges are quite vicious. I, I don't want to badger with this. Oh. But maybe like a badger from like, wind in the wheeler. Willow. Oh, like a fake badger for sure. Yeah. Like a, A fake badger. Yeah. Fantasy badger. A fantasy badger. It's, it's imaginary.

So you can make up whatever you like. Well open your ears wide. A podcast is arriving open your ears wide, like people can close. There he is. Normal expression. Uh, this is Elliot speaking into the microphone and that is. Emma, Emma speaking into another microphone. Yeah, I come silent when you say I'm speaking into the microphone, but if I talk at the same time, they can't hear you.

I'm going off on a tangent already. No, not a ta, not Aran. He said Open your ears. Yeah. One of Tolkien books. He says something like the Ls close their ears. About something. I dunno if this is like, from what I remember as a child, I was like, well, how, how are they doing that? Do you mean like they put their hands over their ears?

Or like, Elle's very magical. And they can like, do something to close their ears. Anyway. Anyway, um, tangents aside, welcome to our rather Higgledy Pty. Hodge Podgy Podgy podcast. That was a very good term. I liked it.

Knock, knock. Who's there? It's parenting achievement time. Parenting. Achievement time. What parenting fail or funny story have you unlocked this week? Bing. Parenting achievement unlocked. I felt very proud of myself 'cause the other night I caught the whole of Lola's sick in a bucket. Which sounds silly, but you know when they're only like 10, 11 months, they can't really aim.

Yeah. So getting the whole sick in is pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. None of it went over the bed. Nope. None of it over cover or any of her clothes? Or your clothes? Nope. All in the bucket. Yeah, I think that deserves like a round of applause. Gold star. Yep. Something go. Me. Woo. Success. Well done.

Congratulations. You got all the sick in the bucket. Yep. I'm afraid. Um, sickness and stuff are gonna be a, uh, recurring Yeah. Uh, theme in this episode. Um, if you click, click trigger warning. If you don't have sound of sickness, well, lovely stuff. Do you have an achievement? Is it as good as catching all the stick in a bucket?

You can tell 'em about your typical dad problem. What was my typical dad problem? Well, you brought Lily back and you had no idea the things you were meant to do. What, what, what Didn't I know what I had to do? I've already forgotten. So Lily came back home, uh, and I always check when she comes back, oh, did you get your book back?

Now you can see where this is going to be fair. I didn't know she'd gone in with her book. No one, no one told me it was, it was mentioned that morning. And Lily did put it in her back. Yeah, my ears were closed. I have no recollection of this conversation. So then they came home and I was like, oh, did, did he like your book?

And Lily immediately burst into tears. And I was like, yeah, what she did, she not, and she got, I forgot it. I forgot my book. And in my head I was like, this is Elliot's fault. She should have checked. When she came out, she had a booklet. Um, I was going, don't worry sweetheart, your teacher will look after it.

She'll give it to you tomorrow. But Lily was so upset this morning, she made us get up. So early. 'cause she kept going, if we get there, we can knock on the door and get my book. Because she's very proud of her book. Yeah. Um, and then I said to Elliot, oh, did you get the, the goodie back? I've organized like you can.

PT organizing little Halloween goodie bags for sweeps in. Yeah, we had had this conversation. I have no recollec. I don't think I was told about these three. He knows about this. No, he knows. He didn't have to collect in necessarily today, but he knew they existed and that was happening week. Oh yeah. I was told that their existence and that they were collect.

I wasn told I had to pick it up, collect when. Yeah. But you know, we have to collect either today or tomorrow. Well, yesterday or today. Right. So I feel like you would've put it together, but it's fine. I feel like a lot of these things are implied. There was a lot of subtle sort of, well, we'd had a conversation that they exist.

I didn't, I didn't pick up that I was gonna to do anything for that. No. Then I was like, oh, did you get a sweet? So he went, what? Sweet. And I was like, we did, we did discuss this. So now I have like, fail, fail. The two other moms. There were the strict instructions that they will tell you to get the sweet spot.

Oh, oh, I see. Oh, you've told the other moms to make sure. Well one of 'em laughed 'cause she was like, her husband also wouldn't have had a clue. Yeah, yeah. Um, and she was like, I'll show him where they are just in case he doesn't know where they'll be. And I was like, great, if you could do that for me. My, my defense, just going back my excuse, I, I have been like getting up at five Most mornings You have with the baby.

Yeah. I'm like, shattered. So that, that's my excuse. That's it's a good excuse. Parenting fail in real time. The baby woke up. Yeah. Screaming mid record. Go so well today.

Right. We'll grab a hot drink to soothe your throat and let's chat today all about the wonderful, lovely, uplifting topic of illness and sickness. We have touched briefly on this before, in an episode, ages ago. Oh, a long time we chatted about childcare. Yeah. About all the bugs they bring home from nursery and stuff like that.

It's like a gift. Yeah. What a, what a wonderful gift. Um, we won't focus so much on that, but more on like. How we cope when everyone's down with illness, how we cope, parenting, um, yeah, like how, you know, how it is with two kids. Yeah. Having true an 11 month old and a 4-year-old for context this year, 2025. If this is when you're listening to it.

Yeah. We have had a lot of illness bugs, a lot like, it's been a year of just constant and we've only just hit winter. Yeah. It's finally gonna get worse. Yeah. Oh. Dear are you've, you've got a snuffle Snuffy cold at the moment. I do. I feel like I've talked to a lot of people. It feels like it's never ended.

Yeah. Like we've just got cold after, or it's the same cold to, maybe it's COVID, but who knows? Yeah. I do wonder if a lot of us have had COVID. We seem to have like the same cold for about three weeks. Yeah. Um, I generally think I've had maybe three or four weeks in this whole year, and we're currently recording this in, uh, end of October.

Uh, that I've been, well, that I've not had, you know, a lot of them have been mild, but like, I'm a bit snuffly now. You, you get holier than me, so I feel like I've been fairly well yeah. For most of it. Oh yeah. No, I, I've had a lot more illnesses than you. Yeah. I don't understand how. Like I've had more illnesses than anyone else.

Like why? Why haven't you caught them? My theory, why haven't you taken my illnesses? My theory is I was a very sickly child and I just got most bugs then. So now I just don't seem to get them as bad. Yeah. Whereas I feel like you clearly weren't that sickly a child because maybe that's get everything. Oh, you didn't socialize as much.

You know, something Lily hasn't been that Ill. Yeah, she's coped the best of us all, but I feel like once again, uh, again, she's been like snuffly, like a blocked nose and runny nose and stuff for quite a long time. But like, it is not affected her too badly. Really. She's avoided a lot of them. Yeah, I was gonna say, 'cause I once again think that's back to like when she first started nursery, she was just ill all the time.

Yeah. And now she's like. Got a defense against most things. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say this then she'll be like horrifically sick in a few days. But yeah, compared to like Lola, who currently has no immunity, who catches every single bug. Yeah. And she's just started nursery as well. Yeah. So she's brought home loads of stuff.

I mean, we can't pinpoint whether that's where it's coming from, but like I assume some of them are coming from there. Yeah. Um, some of them might be coming from school 'cause Lily's just started school. Yep. Um. Uh, but I mean, I seem to catch a lot of them first, so who knows where I'm catching them from.

Like, I work mostly from home. Mostly from home. He occasionally goes out for a meeting, but like, not in any mean where you'd assume he would notice if someone was horrendously ill in the meeting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he starts with a ill, some we're like, where are you caught that? Did you catch it?

Just the few moments he went outside. Mm-hmm. Do sort of thing. Mm-hmm. Uh, so how do we wanna do this? Shall we start with like the challenges? And the relatable sort of, uh, how yeah. What it is. Yeah. And then move on to maybe like how we cope, tips and like any good sort of positive advice or stuff like that or something.

Yeah. Um, I mean, like colds and flu stuff isn't too bad. No, we don't mind like you normally cope. Okay. It's annoying. Like it's. It's hard work parenting at the best at times. Yeah. And you can, it makes Lily see the baby, you can't really tell, but like with Lily, you can tell that she's in a much worse mood.

So she's a lot grumpier and Oh yeah. Gets more emotional. But it's better in some ways where like if the baby gets it, she just throws up horrifically. Yeah. Which on that, like, I'm always like, I prefer. A grumpy lily to her throwing up Lola. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because Lola can Lola control magnificently if people dunno.

Like all over, all over herself. All over you. All over everything. Um, yeah, that's what I mean though. Like, like a runny nose or something is so much more easier, you know, easier to deal with than like sickness. True. But I feel like when slowly gets an illness, you just automatically. Sick. Her symptom, her response is always sickness is what you're saying.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a baby. Yeah. Yeah. That's a challenge. Yeah. And like you're right. It, it does put you in a grumpy mood. I think like often we're all in a grumpy mood 'cause we're like, we're all, all got colds and stuff going round and we're like, well, we're all grumpy, we're all everyone's threshold, you know?

Mm-hmm. Is little patience and it takes so much less for Lily to snap and have a meltdown. Yeah. Lola like will scream and like struggle on going to sleep or feeding. Yeah. Everything is just that much harder. Harder work. Yeah. And recently they just both wanna sit on me. Like if I'm sitting, they're both laid on top of me.

They. Yeah. Well, they want comfort. I know though, mommy, you don't want comfort from their daddy here. I like Elliot. Just look at me. There's like my little head's peeking out. There's two like little creatures are laid on me like, yeah, well with two kids. Now the problem is when they're both ill, they both want you to themselves.

Yeah. Yeah. So like they're both trying. Push the other one off you. Yeah. 'cause they're like, well, I want mommy to myself. You think? You think Lola would, but Lola does. She's like pushing Lily off me. Yeah. She has enough understanding to be like, I want her off 'cause I wanna sit on uni. Yeah. And then Lily gets upset.

Yeah. She's like, get Lola off. I wanna sit on money. Lily goes, she always gets to sit on ly, which isn't true, but I think in Lily's head, because she's not a home. Lola's just constantly on me. Yeah. And therefore she's like, you always get turn on me. I want to return me money because I'm feeling under the weather.

Yesterday. Daddy had to be like, no one is on mommy for five minutes. 'cause mommy needs to eat. Let her eat her food. Yeah. And everybody's like, yeah. At, at this point, like I only have to, oh yeah. I don't even have to tell Lily off. I just have to say something like, you have to be like, could, could you pick up your shoes and put 'em on the shoe stand or like any, any instruction, anything.

I say to Lily and she's like, sobs of tears, like Daddy's told me off, daddy sad. Oh, I'm so sad. Mommy. Why? Daddy told me off. Yeah. And then I have to be like, I dunno, I dunno what happened. Like I generally, someone's coming downstairs and she's sitting crying by the baby gate. And she's like, mommy. And I'm like, oh no, what happened?

And then she goes, and she can't even tell me. I think it's a common like toddler reaction as well because, you know, you struggle to, uh, you manage your emotions. You've not yet developed that sense of you know, how to cope and when you're real, a lot of that is then, you know, yeah. Even, yeah. Her normal, like threshold of being quite sensible, just kind of, yeah.

Fade. And the challenge with Lola. As is the case with any baby or you know, anyone under two maybe. You know, it depends when they start to communicate is that they really struggle. You know, they can't tell you. They can't just speak and say, I'm feeling poorly. This is what's wrong. This is where it hurts.

Yeah. You know, so to them they don't really know what's going on on other than they're in pain. Yeah. And so like that's challenging as well. At least Lily can communicate with us. Yeah. And Lily, you can go, does your tummy hurt? Do you feel like you're gonna throw up, like you try and get the ballpark area of what hurts?

Yeah. And what you're gonna be dealing with. Yeah. Whereas with Lola, you sort of return to that baby phase mentality of like, let's run through the checklist. Yeah. Let's see. Like, is this the problem? Is this the problem? And it's hard with Lola because, 'cause you're like, is it teeths? Is it cow's milk allergy?

Oh yeah. I mean, it's a general bug that's, yeah. Like with with babies, with Lola, like Yeah. There's so many factors. Yeah. Often we're like, well, we think she's ill. Yeah. But it could be one of these 10 different things like in the minute that are currently affecting, she's thrown up nearly every day, but only once, not continuous, and only when you've like been feeding her a bottle.

Yeah. We think it's just teething. So think it's just teething, it just hits it wrong in it. Yeah. Um, that's our current theory. Yeah. We may be wrong. It may be a full blown sickness bug, but we find it like, it's one of those things where we're like, well, it's that, or it's milk allergy. Like, yeah. It's odd for it to be only once a day, like it's just, or a very weird sickness or very queen sickness book.

She's only sick like once every 24 hours. Yeah. No other symptoms. Um, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Shall we talk about sickness then? 'cause that's like a big challenging one and it's the one I hate the most. Yeah. Oh, dear. I, I mean, I don't like them having diarrhea either, but normally they go hand in hand and I, yeah.

Oh, just, we mentioned it in passing a couple of episodes ago, but we had a week where we had one of these like sickness bugs hit the house and we, it went through all of us, like one by one. Um, and you just like, it is those horrible ones where you kind of up all night just throwing up constantly. Yeah. Um, and so like you've got.

So many different challenges about parenting and looking after your own kids, you know, in, you know, you want the best for them, and when they're throwing up, it's so, uh, it's heartbreaking to see them like struggling. Yeah. But then you also dealing with your own illness. Uh, but, and you can't just like, you can't lie out.

You can't get any sleep. You can't, no. And you can't go, oh, it's a really quiet day to day. Like, you know, before, before kids, you'd be like, you know what? Jay, we'll just write through it. Yeah, I'll just lay out. I'll relax. I'll feel better. Um, you know, I can't do that. My only, I always just pray that we're both well while a kid's ill.

Yeah. And that then we're only ill after they're better. Yeah. I was just about to ask like, do you think it's better that it hits us all simultaneously? No. Or like a stacked approach? I think that's the worst, right? I mean, you get over it quicker. It's over quicker, but then it's just chaos. Yeah. 'cause you can't really look after them, but it's only a day.

Whereas this took us out for a whole week. I know, but I think that is better. It's better to have like one man, even if it's just like it's normally me. That's what annoys me as well. I'm normally the wellest. They were true. So I'm normally like the one person still like, you know, running things. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure it's a thing you can claim as being like, oh no, it's just, it's not your fault.

It just, it annoys me that I know I would, I would like to be the, well one, I just thought I would like to be the one doing everything. Like, great, now he's laid. That's just me. I'm not a fan of the one that always gets it first. Because it means you're very rarely well again, before the next person gets it True.

Yeah. Whereas if you're the last person to get it, you're sort of, you know, uh, at least you've had a period, you, when you're helping out, when you are like looking after the kids, at least you are feeling well. True. The worst, worst case scenarios, you're feeling your and looking after an child, but not like the kids are recovered by the time like Yeah, true.

Often the kids get catch it quicker and first and get over it. Yeah. Yeah. And then we're just sat Yeah. In be illness, and then they're really lively. Yeah. Running around and then you're like, could you crawling. I've got a terrible headache. Yeah. Yeah. Just when I lay out and they're like, dear, I wanna go up.

Yeah. I'm bored. So now I'm gonna have like a tantrum over nothing. 'cause I'm really bored and I go somewhere still up at five, six o'clock in the morning. Yeah. You're like, please No. Oh dear. This morning Lily was like, good morning. And I was like, just go downstairs and find your father. And she was like.

Okay.

I had such a bad head last night and I think that I've been up a lot with Lola and her weird sickness once a night, and she's been getting up at two or three just for no reason not to be sick, just. Yeah, up. I think, although we have had some sickness, we have, but it's not necessarily at two and three soft than before then.

Yeah. And then she's just up with her teeth, I think. Really. And of course when we had one kid, uh, when, when Lily used to be ill, at least then she's got a two of us. Yeah. She's got a full attention, things like that in the night. Like we just put her in our bed with us. Yeah. Um, you know, once she was old enough and not a baby baby, and you could look after her and monitor and stuff.

Now of course, like. There's two of them. So like, often you need to take one each. Yeah. And like, but it means there's not always, you can't always put, you can't have both kids in the bed and fit everyone in and look after them all at once. So like, there were ti we swapped around, but we both had a stint of sleeping on Lily's floor with a sick bucket.

Yep. Next to us ready to, you know, couch, Chinese stick. Lovely. Uh, lovely going on. Um. I also get a thing. Then this is just me trying not to have tick on me. Like I don't wanna be grossed out. I really worry. They'll sleep and throw up in their sleep on me. Mm. So I try and face them away from me. But because my kids love me and want comfort, they wanna be like right there on my face and I'm like, you throw up again, I'm gonna be the person, which I know it, it's like selfish, but I'm like, at least we're up towards the wall.

You know, and not, not me. Just please not me please. Um, I don't mind that I'm more, I'm more like just 'cause I do the washing on our house, I'm like, please don't throw up over the bedding again. Yeah. It's like the fifth set of bedding I've had to put through the wash. It's normally just as we like, 'cause we normally put towels out.

It's normally as we just get confident enough to be like, oh, I'll put the towels away. Yeah. Yeah. We won't, we won't think they'll be sick again, and then I feel like they'll have one surprise sick just to get the bedding. Yeah. While we've left it, you know, we'll be like, they've been sick on stuff again.

All this needs to come off. Needs to go in the wash. Like, and then they're crying 'cause they're like tired. Like they just wanna lay straight back down. I remember Lily was like, no. And I was like, I have to have to get rid of all this stuff on the bed. No, I just want, I was like, I know you wanna sleep. You can't sleep in a pile if you're sick, you can't sleep on the sick.

You need to go. Like, I was like, I'll even hold you. What's my, it's all over your clothes. Like, I need to change you. And she's like, no, just let me lay down. Yeah. Why can't I lay down? Yeah. Just reliving it vividly. We'll probably have this Yeah. Another two times, at least before Christmas, but Yeah. Yeah.

Somehow it's just so much worse at night. Yeah. Like, I suppose, you know, it's obvious. But, um, I was gonna say, the other thing is I'm then constantly telling the girls to stay away from each other, which is like, it's like telling magnets not to, you know? Oh yeah. To like pass it on and like gems. I'm like, don't touch your sister.

Yeah. You've been sick. Don't go near her. And she's like, you can tell by her face. She's like, but I wanna play. And I'm like, I know you wanna play. Just leave her alone. But like, just don't, just two days. Yeah. Just don't, they can't do it always all over each other, which is lovely. It's lovely to love each other, but I'm like, either one of them has been sick or one of them's ill.

I'm like, ple just a little bit. Just if you couldn't breathe in each other's faces and you know, the spreading of germs. It's just, it's an impossible. Just an uphill battle that's impossible. Like you just can't, you can't stop it. Like, yeah, the germs spread no matter what. And like, even like That's understandable.

Once it's in the house, of course. Yeah. It's true. It, it's very tricky to stop everyone catching it. But even other stuff, obviously you can't really help at nursery or school or childcare. Yeah. Whatever it is. Um, you. Like often you still have to go out and see people, but, or even things like, you know, we have like grandparents come and visit and help out and things, and often it's like they've been ill, but they're desperate to see their grandkids.

Yeah. And we're like, please don't kiss or touch the children. You've been ill. Like if you've been ill, don't, don't come. There's no stopping them. No. Like they still come, they still kiss the baby, they still hug everyone and it's like, uh, great. Yeah. I dunno if this is being sensical at all. It's just a big moan really.

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I am. Shall we chat about, um, tips, advice, how do we cope? How do you survive? I'd say in a minute I have a lot of hot drinks. Yeah. Just because you know you have sore throats and you feel tired and you just, you need something to help you. You know, shoulder soldier on i's gonna say, shoulder soldier on through it.

You have someone like Elliot who's good at doing like somebody beyond cleaning. Why it's good when there's two of us. Yeah, but I don't If you're by yourself, I how you do it. Oh yeah. A big challenge. Yeah. Because like normally he's the one running downstairs, like to watch everything where I'm holding the sick child who's just thrown up, ready for them to throw up again.

You need two people, don't you? Like, I think if you're by yourself, if I don't know, partner's away, you're a single parent. Whatever context it is. Um, like if you're real, I feel like you should get some, someone round the help, support like grammar. Get it. Yeah. Whoever. Um, 'cause it's just impossible otherwise, I just, I feel like, 'cause most of the time I'm sat holding a child who's still throwing up and you are like slowly grabbing all the like, things to clean.

Yeah. Like, it's just, it's a lot of work. Um, I. Although, you know, there's only one of you, maybe you'd be less illness brought in. Maybe. I mean, maybe that's why it's been particularly bad for us this year. Um, you know, but we did have a lot of illnesses when Lily was young. True. And we just had one. But maybe, maybe that is the difference.

Maybe that's why we've had more this year. Also, like Lola just licks everything at the minute, so that doesn't help. Lily's got to an age where, like if you say, oh, someone's Ill, don't, like, stay away from them, or, you know, like, clean your hands, you know? Yeah, yeah. Whereas Lola just. Like gums, everything and bites everything.

And just we've, uh, we've rambled off topic again, we wanna be trusting about how we like survive and advice and stuff. Um, what's your favorite way to, uh, look after yourself when you are ill? Like you've mentioned hot drinks, anything, any other like particular you like, go to. Things like, do you like a hot bath?

Do you like what, what sort of stuff? I do like a hot bath, but I always have children in my bath, so that doesn't really help me. Well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, is there any particular like comfort food or other stuff? Oh, I would say my healthy eating just goes out the window. Yeah. Um, obviously soup and stuff feels nice, but also.

At that point, I'm like, well, I'll eat a whole packet of biscuits. Like, well, I, which probably doesn't help with the sickness, but I'm often like, I was gonna say, it depends on what sort of illness it is, doesn't it? It reached the point where like, I'm like, oh, this is just, it's so much work looking after everybody.

I'm just like, you stuff it, stuff it. I'm not healthy eating. Yeah. Which would probably be better for me, but I'm like, screw it. I mean, anything I want. Oh yeah, anything. I found a seat in it. Because I need to survive and I need some luxuries in life. That's it. Particularly when it's like a cold or something.

Yeah. I like, yeah. I, I just stuff myself with like unhealthy things, which hasn't gone well this year considering it's like only had three or four weeks where I've not had a cold. That's true. This basically the whole year's been a unhealthy eating write off. Yeah. Um, but yeah, the sickness is like opposite.

I find we both end up like losing a lot of weight very quickly. We do. Yeah. Uh, 'cause you just don't want to eat anything. No. Um, you think we would be skinnier really? But, um, yeah. Well, I think we've had more colds than sicknesses. We have. And the sickness doesn't always last that long. Like it feels like forever, but doesn't last long enough to like, whereas a cold can last.

Well we've had ones that have lasted Oh yeah. Three or four weeks. Yeah, without, I'm trying to be good at the minute and not have a hot chocolate and just of green tea. But then a lot of days I'm like, but I need it. Like I've had no sleep, I need it. I need the sugar. 'cause promise. I don't have much time for like self care.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I try and take my vitamins. Right, right, right. I, I think I, um, revert back to like, I, I buy in stuff that was like comfort food when I was like a child. Mm. Like there was stuff I used to get when I was like, ill at home when I was young that I then, like, nowadays I'm like, oh yeah, I want that again.

Now that I feel ill. Yeah. So like, I'll always get a. Like Lucozade Orange. Oh yeah. Although, to be fair, they've changed the recipe. So like it's no longer quite as sugary as it used to be, no longer good. So I don't think it tastes quite as good, but that to me was always like, I don't know why, but like I used to have that as a treat when I was there.

We used to have fig biscuits, but obviously I can't eat gluten like much now. Yeah. So I. No, it's not one I can do. Yeah. But that used to be like one of our sick foods with like fig biscuits. I used to really, I used to be like, oh, I'm, ill get a fig biscuit. That's such an odd, such a thing. It's like what?

Like, it's not even like chocolate or anything. Didn't all other people have these things where you've got specific PA figs particularly good when you are ill or something? I think they're good for digestion. Right? So mom was like, that's a way to get them to eat it. 'cause it's, yeah. Like your mom was a nurse.

Of course. Yeah. So maybe that was like, we didn't get ade or anything, but that was expensive. Oh yeah. Yeah. Love that. Of course. Um, I used to love that. Ooh, I had that a lot when I was pregnant. That pasta. Oh, it's great. It's probably terrible for you. Um, you know the packet of pasta? Oh yeah. And you like put like instant sort of, yeah.

You put like butter with it and it's like, is it called like. Bachelors is that approach. I think there is a brand. That was our go-to one. And when you were ill, 'cause mom couldn't roll her to cook, which I understand now, being a parent, she'd just like put one of those on and Oh, it tasted so good. I mean, once again, probably not good for you, but I used to be like, oh.

It's delicious. That's it, isn't it? I mean, I think to survive often, the only way when you have the added complication of illness mm-hmm. Is that you have to take shortcuts, do things that are maybe not how you would ideally want to parent the whole time, but just things that make life easier. So a lot of the rules go out the window.

Yeah. Like TV time, just like, yeah, sure. We have more TV time. Um, like we try and. Do foods that are quick and easy. Yeah. They might not be as healthy for the kids. Um, stuff like that. I'm trying to think if there's anything else really. Like we, we don't, we won't do as many activities. Yeah. We try and keep things calm, like with Lola and things.

Often you'll make activities or we'll play games or we'll go out or stuff. Like when we're all ill, we'll just like get a big cover out and sit and snuggle. This week I was like, we haven't gone to the library. We were gonna go to the toy thing. We haven't gone to that. Yeah. Like we, we've just been, she was out in the garden a couple of days, but I was like.

We've done nothing. Yeah. Really? Because I'm like, you need to get better. Yeah. You're in a bad mood with your teeth. It's like you've not slept terribly well, I don't wanna push it. I just want you to just, you know, have a little relaxing time and. Yeah. Kind of get better. And we are fortunate that we're able to like quite easily take time off work Mm.

And flex our work around it. But it is an added complication of often you end up taking time off work because your kid is ill. Um, I, I had this discussion with, um, one of Lily's friends coming back from school. She was saying she now works from home, but she used to be a teacher. Yeah. And she said it was agonizing because, um, like nursery would call up being like, he's sick again.

And she'd be like, but I'm at work. She was like, I've paid money 'cause I don't get my nursery money back. Now I've just lost money. Yeah. So she was like, I'm just losing money. Yeah. Like, 'cause I was saying how Ill Lily was the first, you know. Kind of a few months of nursery. And she was going, yeah. And she was like, I was just, I was just throwing money away.

Was exactly. Was like, she was like, because I, I couldn't nursery's paid for, I don't get it back. 'cause he's just sent home. Yeah. We was, we discussed this all on nursery, but she was saying she didn't get paid like her point. So she was saying that, so I'm just losing money effectively. Like I'm just paying for him to be somewhere.

He isn. Well, I sit at home and he is sick on me. She was like, it's crazy. It's slightly better now because of the government funding has kicked in for many of us. It's what? Discussing. Yeah. So for, for if you've got kids in childcare now, hopefully a lot of that is funded by the government. I mean, it's still a lot.

Let's not pretend it's like nothing. Yeah. But compared to what we were paying. But like it's a lot better than it was. But like if you've got, uh, children slightly older like us with Lily, then you'll remember a time when Yeah. You like, like we were saying, Lily was off. For a lot of the first four months of nursery, she came down with loads of illnesses and she was off an awful lot.

Yeah. But you still had to pay Yeah. For her to, you know, and so that was just throwing money away. Mm-hmm. And you couldn't go to work. Yeah, just, yeah. Double whammy. It's, it's really tricky. Um, but often then I also find. The kids will get better. You've taken time off when the kid's real. Yeah. Like you'd send them back, but then if you then become ill, like I'd often find I'm returning to doing work and stuff before I'm fully better because you can't take more time off work.

Also, kids do that thing right, where they're sick and then you're like, oh, they're gonna be all day. Message School can't come in. Sorry. She's been sick. Yeah. Message nurse. She can't come in. They've been sick. Yeah. All day. Completely fine. Live wires. Nothing wrong with them. And you sit there going, I know.

I ha, I know. I had to tell them. 'cause that's the right thing to do. Yeah. But could I just have sent them in because they're completely fine now? Yeah. And just, and it means you then are looking after, not in a mean way, looking after a sick child. Hard but looking after a well child. More hard. Like a sick child.

At least they're gonna lay there. You can watch TV with them. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Generally not, not even if it's sickness bug. There's stroke now and again, it's not, not. It's, it's not saying it's not bad. It is. So we had a discussion literally this morning with my little friends from school and one of 'em was saying how she took her son to the beach.

He had chickenpox but was a live wire. So she was like, I can't send him anywhere. So she said the beach, nobody was there. So she was like, right. I'm gonna go to the beach. I'm just gonna let him run around. Yeah. 'cause he seems completely fine, but they haven't crossed it over yet. I can't take him anywhere.

I can't take him to a soft play. Can't send him to a nursery. Yeah. What am I gonna do with him? And I was like, yeah, that's actually a really good idea. Like maybe that level energy, find somewhere where nobody else is. Yeah. Good tip. Like one of the challenges with babies, of course, is that they exhibit stuff you know, quite differently to how, like we're talking about toddlers just there, but you know, often it would just mean that a baby's like crying or screaming for a lot of the day rather than being Yes, just quite upset.

They're just not happy. Um. So, I dunno, what, what are your top tips for like helping comfort, um, like a child? I'm thinking, you know, often we've got like specific, uh, like music or shows that we Oh yeah. True. Tend to help calm them down. We, excuse me. You paying attention? Yeah. Sorry, I was just leaning over the emails.

Um, what? See what I have work with it. Always helping me think. Um, I was gonna say, um, see, I've lost my train of thought because you've. Um, how dare he talk to me on podcast. This is what we're here for. We be talking. No, I was thinking of something I was about to say as I was doing in those emails and then she said, whatcha doing?

And I'll track us off. Oh, gonna leave all this in. Oh, great. I promise I am. Treat another last aspect of my life. Um. It's annoying as well. I mean, it wasn't the best point, but What was a point to say? Uh, I was talking about like music or shows that we like have calm about Arabic color song. Yes. With Lily, we had the Arabic color song.

We don't use that for lly though. We use, um, the Happy song. Yes, do, do, do. Yeah. That one. Yeah. Can't remember who it's by now. No, I can't either. But it's ingrained into my soul now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so they're like, go-to things that like when they're particularly distressed Yeah. Help calm them down. And like Lola loves Miss Rachel, so Yes, miss Rachel.

Yeah. I try not to let her watch it too much, but whenever she's under the weather, I'm like, let's just stick it on. Yeah. Get Miss Rachel. Thank God for Miss Rachel. Get Miss Rachel. Because Lily wasn't into it at all. Really? Not much. No. She, she likes sitting down her watch, but I'm like, let's, let's stick that on and just sit and just, yeah.

Little couch potatoes. Um, yeah, so we just, we tend to let them just sit out, don't we? Yeah. And we normally have cover land, but we've cover land a lot more. If people, do you wanna explain what Coval land is? Oh, right, okay. Yeah, I was, um, I dunno if it's obvious or not. Like we, I bring our big duvet down from our bed and like we lay out lots of blankets and covers and cushions and cushions on the, the floor in the living room and create like a big, cozy, soft space.

But both kids. Then just like snuggling up somehow. It's much more exciting than being on the sofa. Yeah. Just like, and that sofa's not huge, so it kinda makes a bigger space to all lay out. Just makes a change. And then they're like laid on the floor. Like a big like Yeah. I dunno. Like often we do it for like a film evening or something.

Yeah. But like often when they're real as well, it's a nice comforting thing. Or they need some chill time. I try and give, I know you're talking about baths for adults, but I try and give like. Lola kind of more robust. 'cause it seems she's like a water baby. It seems to settle a lot. Well, the water, I, I reckon it probably applies, you know, for a lot of kids mm-hmm.

Both are children kind of like a bath and they do. Yeah. Find that a helpful way to feel a bit better. Mm-hmm. Um, often. Yeah. We'll do that. I, I know there's often been times when. The kids have been unwell, particularly Lola, and it's like, this is gonna be our third bath of today, because it's what calms her down.

It makes you happy. Yeah. There must be some sensory thing about being in the water and it being warm and just. Yeah, probably. But she loves the bath, so at any time we're really struggling with Lola. We're like, right, last time, let's just all it, I normally save this till the end and we'll come back to this at the end as well.

But, um, you know, comments from, we have some good recommendations, um, but I just wanted to bring up one, 'cause it relates to that topic while we're talking about it. Someone on our Instagram, oh, it was, um. It was, um, the mum club Harrogate Oh. Um, had commented on our story. Uh, I asked this question about what people's tips are, um, and they'd recommended Detel baths.

Oh, yes. Um, I, I do, I do, I do I understand what that means? What does that mean? I dunno if they mean deel. I think they mean, um, like that, um, maybe it is, I I would assume it would be like VIX baths. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Where some people are very clever and they like freeze. Uh, like put them in ice cream trays fix, right?

Yeah. And then they pop it out and put it in the bath. So it like, it has a nice smell. If you dunno what Vicks are, then it's like a little tub of uh, like the smelly stuff that helps unclog your sinuses. Yeah, that, that's a good explanation. I don't if you don't have it in your country, I dunno how to describe it particularly.

That was a good description. Um, yeah. Wow. Yes. I, I, it sort, it didn't slowly got better. I didn't, it did quite how to. The still was quite weak tub of something, but yeah, it's main purpose is to help, it's like jelly kind of stuff. Yeah. Uh, but it it's the aromatic Yes. Uh, thing. That's mental help, isn't it?

Yeah. Like, and I think it does. Um, and what we said before, I think another podcast is those, um. Cal Pole plugins. Yes. You got one of them, didn't you? They're really good. Yeah. I hadn't realized though, the little refill pads, like they, they don't last very long. No, it's only like one night. No, they're quite expensive.

And then you have to buy more. Yep. It's very expensive. But I remember Elliot was turning on, I said, oh, you need to replace this thing. You went wolf thing. You mean this isn't the thing? I was like, oh no. That tiny bit of paper. And then I was thinking, I'm sure we can make our own, could we do something in Cal Poll and like.

See there, I was thinking like, oh, we've paid for this like, um, plugin cow pole thing. Uh, that's been a thing. You thought it was like a send plugin? Yeah, send thing that would help unplug it and I thought, oh, it must last like a week or something. Yeah. And then we'll get a replacement lasts like 14 hours or, or something.

Yeah. Very quick. We've also got a, um, in our room. Where Lola sleeps in her cough. Oh, an air purifier. An air purifier, which, um, like if they've got a cough or something. Yeah. Something like that. Uh, um, a particular symptom. Those are, are highly recommended just to help like clear the air of particles. I, I think they are good.

And I think it, touch wood, it helps the cough not get too kind of aggressive. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Even, even for us, you know. Oh yeah. I often find. It's quite helpful if I've got a bad throat or cough or something that, well, I do. If I've slept in Lily's room and then I sleep in our room with the air purify, I'm like, oh, this is better.

Yeah, yeah. Can breathe a bit better. We've had it for a number of years now, and use, we have, we just have to replace a it. Yeah. We use, I'm a big fan personally, I mean. We don't use this as much with the kids, but like, um, Alba soil Oh yeah. And stuff like that. And then I have, I have a load of other things that like, because my symptoms, I'm particularly susceptible to like blocked noses.

Yes, he is. Yes. Whereas you, like we, we end up with like very different symptoms, don't we? In the same illness? I'm, I'm always, I think 'cause of my IBS, um, I just generally always just have like going to the toilet all the time. So like with the sickness book, I never got sick. An upset stomach and stuff.

Just, just an upset stomach. Like, um, and it wasn't even, I'm saying like I did have some diarrhea, but it wasn't horrific. Yeah. But I seem to get, everything just goes to my stomach. Right? Like, it doesn't matter what illness I have. Yeah. It's like, this is how our body reacts to things. Whereas I get like blocked sinuses, uh, yeah.

A lot, all the time. So like, I, it does, yeah. Like I, I invested in like all these different, um. You know like the little things that are meant to be for like snoring? Yeah. Yeah. To like the open your airwaves and stuff like that. Little things you stick on your nose and all sorts of other things like you.

That's flush your nose out. I was very confused because Lily was asking for a thing to go on her nose. Oh really? I think that's why she likes plasters on her nose. 'cause she knew with what? Oh, I was me wearing them. Yeah. Because she was going, daddy likes them. And I was like, he likes a plaster on his nose.

And then now you've just said that I'm going, oh, that's what she was talking about. A plaster on your nose. You also obviously get like nasal sprays and stuff. Mm. And I don't find that particularly effective. Um, uh, I do have loads of like pills based thing. Oh, let's talk about that in a second. Um, we'll come back to like medicine.

Yeah. Um. I was just gonna say that there are like children versions of some of these things. Like there are, there is a child version of Alba soil and you know, things like that. Yeah. We have the kid Alba soil. Yeah. And we have, um, we used to have, we haven't used it with Lola yet. Um, like that salt spray that goes up your nose.

Tran Clay, clean a bit. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I just know Lola wouldn't we add well to that. Yeah. But felt Lily was a bit bigger so she could kind of understand it a bit more. Yeah. Um. So medicines like obviously cow poll, we go through like anything in our house. Oh yeah. And what's annoying at the minute, because it's like illness season.

Yeah. Cow poll is like nowhere to be found in my shops. So every time I do an online delivery, they're like, we couldn't get any cow poll. Yeah. And I'm like, oh great. So I have to run out to the shop today and be like, I'm going to in person. And there was only like three left. Wow. So I was like, I'll get one older one.

One younger one. So it's for both kids. Um, yeah. That's. So expensive as well. So expensive. So I don't That was like six pounds for two of those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's not that bad. It would've been more than that because I think they're 3 25 each. A little. Oh, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Like three 50 elsewhere.

Yeah. I remember I got one from co-op at one point. It was like four pound 25, and I was like, what? I like, I generally think we've spent like hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Oh yeah, definitely. This year alone. Definitely. Just on Calpol. Well, that and the Calpol plugin, they've got their. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's not a lot else you can use, really. Some supermarkets do own brand stuff. I don't like to give ibuprofen, especially at Lola's age. 'cause if it's chicken pox or something, that makes it worse. So I, I'm more like, I prefer to give them a paracetamol bast thing. Yeah. Yeah. I know you, uh. Just go pick up what you, you said ibuprofen.

I know that's a like, it's like Im That you, yes. It's just what my family call it. Yeah. It's ibuprofen, but we all call it ibuprofen for some reason. Yeah. Yeah. Let me know. There's another weird thing that other people say. I don't think it's a northern thing. I think's, no, no, I think it's just a my family thing because I, it's, sometimes I say it to doctors and I can see their faces looking at me like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And I wanna go. I'm not uneducated. Yeah, I do know it's said different. I just, I used to get the, um, own brand cow pole from, uh, Morrison's quite a bit. Yeah. They used to do quite a good one. Um, it was like two pound 50, so it was pretty decent. And I think it, it slowly went, started going up in price.

Mm. Like it depends again, when you're listening to this and like, yeah. A couple of years ago, a lot of this stuff was cheaper than like cost of living and stuff. It's, yeah. Inflation, it's slowly going up. Um, but recently they've changed. They've changed. Changed something. I'm not sure. Like they've changed branding and packaging, but I also think they've changed supplier and like, oh what's, because I remember I bought one not that long ago and Lola hated it.

Like the taste of it just really didn't go down well. So I mean that's annoying 'cause Yeah, she has to have it. Yeah. Back on the like branded cow. Yeah. Lily's at a good age, she'll take her own carpo shouts to in herself. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that's fine. Lola will take it fine with mum, but not with dad. Yeah.

All I have to do is pretend to put it in my mouth and then she'll open her mouth. Oop. Yep. Done. Uh, with daddy, acts like it's poison. No. Hates it. I mean, it's an improvement though because it's interesting. Some kids love it and some kids don't need to think. Like, you know, for us, like as adults, I'm like, I would love Cal.

Oh it's delicious. It's like, I know these days it's not got any sugar in it, but it still like, but tastes good. Taste nice. Like takes me back to my childhood. Yeah. It's a lovely thing. I'm like, I love Cal. I'm like, why do the kids not like it? And some kids obviously love it, but I remember with Lily when she was little, oh yeah.

Like it was a real struggle to get to take Cal, poll it. Um, so I'm glad Lola is a lot better. Yeah, no, I remember Lily and she'd like hold close her mouth. Yeah. Like she was very good at avoiding it and you'd be like, oh, open your mouth to put it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like literally, once she was a toddler, I often had to like pin her down and like force it in her mouth.

Be like, put a couple in. Yeah. Like, no, no. I'm like, you're ill. This will help. And you're like, try and hide in something and she'd taste it, not want it. Oh that's, yeah, that's the thing again. Lola's quite happy to have it in her milk. Yeah. Um, Lily would often reject it if it had Cal poet, so, yeah. Yeah.

But I'm saying recently I think we've been really in sync. Like one, one person does something, the person's like on it. Don. Other, I would say, you know, like when it, when illness strikes, it does put a lot more pressure on mums particularly. Mm-hmm. Like there's all sorts of stuff going on that means so much more.

Yeah. True force to you. There is more to do. It's hard. Dads do need to step up and help. It's always like the medical expert of us too. Oh yeah. That is, well, I normally know like. There's a glass test. You, you know, the, the things to do to test, you know, quite a lot about illnesses. I mean, you've got quite a few people in family.

I've got quite a family who are medical. Yeah. Um, and it, it is great. So my sister Laura, shout out to Laura. Anything I'm worried about, I'm like Right. Send a picture to Laura. Yeah. She'll know what it is. So like Lola had some odd poos when she was ill and I was like, send a picture to Laura. Yeah. Take on the flip side.

Um, just 'cause she didn't get a shoutout last episode. Oh yes. Becky, your sister in France. Bingo cards. She's been mentioned, but I would say, um, not, not a good option to send, I'm sorry, Becky. Sorry. Becky. Becky, I know you listen to this, but, um, she's a panicker. Yes. She would be like, go to hospital every time.

Yeah. But that's also 'cause she's used to the French health system where you can just go to hospital and you can just see a doctor. So she's like, lives in a world where that's achievable. Yeah. And we're like, no. 'cause we'll be there for hours. Yeah. If we don't need to go. We can't. We can't. We can't, we can't spend all night there.

Mm. So. Do you see how much I'm like, no, no, no. Like this is, um, landed quite nicely 'cause I did wanna move us onto this topic. So let's, uh, very briefly talk. You know, there have been like various occasions with our children where we've ended up in hospital through illness, but particularly whilst we've had a young baby.

Yeah. I think more often when something strikes and you don't know what it is, you don't know how dangerous it is. I think it's more worrying 'cause you know, little children. Can get very sick fast. And it's, it is annoying because in the past, of course, what we'd be talking about would be going to see a doctor.

Exactly. And like that's all we need really is to go and see a doctor. We just, we just need somebody to look at them and go, yeah, that is bad, but it's not. Life threatening. It's not dangerous. What is this rash? Why are they being sick? Yeah, what, you know, what's going on? Um, we're a bit worried, you know, whatever it is.

Yeah. But it's so difficult to see a doctor. It's like almost impossible. And then it's so annoying. 'cause every time you look at the NHS website and I'm like, oh, they've had yellow sick. And they're like, you need to see someone straight away. A doctor or an agent. That's, we try and follow the rules. I'm always, but the website says I have to see somebody.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's a weekend. No doctor gonna have to go to hospital, but I don't wanna go to hospital. But the guidelines say I should. Yeah. Like, and I, I almost get in a thing where I'm like, I just, I just want them to, to just look Yeah. And do some tests like. You know, with our, the recent, the example that we're using where we had sickness for the whole week going through the house, um, in the first instance, Lola did catch it first.

Yeah. Um, so we didn't know initially what it was. No. We didn't know that it was gonna be a sickness bug. Um, and she was throwing up loads. Oh, it was like every 20 minutes. Yeah. It wasn't even an hour. It was, uh, and became really dehydrated and so you got very worried about her. So at like three o'clock in the morning.

I took her into a EI think you kept going, we won't go yet. We won't go. And I was like, okay, okay, we'll wait. And then I think it was 3:00 AM and he is like, she's still throwing up nonstop. I think we should go. I was like, fine. Yeah, fine. I'll take her to a EI would say as predicted. Yeah. That like, there was nothing, you know?

Yeah. They, they monitored her, said she was fine. We came home. Yeah. I mean we were there for like six hours. Yeah. Because it takes a while to get through the system and they wanted to, you know, spend two hours monitoring her, but. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so there, there's all that as well, isn't there when Yeah.

Particularly when you have a baby who's ill, where trying to make that judgment call about, okay, do we need outside help now? Yeah. Do we go and see a medical professional? And it's always hard because you, like, there's so many stories of like, people being like, oh, I just left my kid. And then on face, like, you know, on TikTok, like, and then they were dead.

Like, you just, I'm like always like, well, I remember a story and I'm like, see, that's, that's the Becky in you. Yes. That's like jumped to the worst possible conclusion. That's how it always goes. They're always like, oh, the doctors dismissed us. This happened. Oh, I just left it. And then, yeah. And I'm always like, it just, I think, 'cause I don't have confidence in our health service at the minute, I'm always like, let's just go to the top.

And the danger is you pick up more bugs and bring more stuff home. So once it's tricky. Once it was when we were there with Lola's caramel allergy, um, and I was there by myself for a bit and there was a kid thrown up in the corner and I was like. Just see us. Just see us. I would say though, you should always like, if you have any worries, worries, you should go.

Yeah. Like if that means you're going to a e and you think it'll be a waste of time, it's still better to do that. Yeah. We have very different standards in terms of like if it's the kids who are ill. Oh yeah. There are top priority. Yeah. If it's me, who's ill, I'm like. Well, I'd never go to hospital. I'll just sit and die at home.

Like, I'll just sit here. Just leave me. I'm, I'm sure it'll get better eventually, but like you can't take that risks with, with you, with your children. Yeah. No, it's true. Age when, when it is one of us, we're like, we'll just leave it. We'll just die quietly. It's so hard on me. 'cause everybody I talk to, they're like, oh yeah, we've got hand, foot and math, we've got chicken box we've got, and I'm like, ah, it's surrounding us, please.

Then I'm like trying to work out. I don't dunno if other people do, it's like in your head, your calendar from when you last saw that person. Oh, right. And then I'm like, well, how, how long would it. What would it be? Catchable and then trying to do the maths of being like, well, it was a week ago. They probably probably wouldn't have been infectious then.

Yeah, hopefully. And then so another one I'm like, oh God, it was three days ago. Like it's fairly likely in reverse. You also have a. The thing where, you know, you've ended up coming down, you know, someone in the family's come down with something, you're like, right. Well let's see, who have we seen in the last week?

And then we're messaging. Go. What? Were parents. We're so sorry. Yeah. We have come down with an illness. Illness. I know we saw you yesterday at that play thing, but, um, uh, we, we've been sick now and I always feel like morally obliged to tell 'em. Yeah. Just almost like a heads up. Like, just so you know, just so you know, this is coming soon.

It might be coming. And then I'm often like, this is what also used to be like at the school gates, one of our, um. Friend's, little girl's being ill, but her sister goes to the school. Yeah. And she's fine now. But then me and the other moms were like, and how long did this last for? Right. Yeah. Okay. And it was like almost getting the nitty gritty of the illness.

Yeah. Just in case we get it to be like it only last 24 hours, guys, we were, everyone sorted doesn't seem to be as bad. We just amuse as we were all kind of like, we need information. How bad was the bug? What happened? How did it start? Yeah, like, like a little girl going in with going, my tummy really hurts.

And I was looking at Lily and I wanted to go, don't play with that kid. Stay away from her because it's one of her friends. Yeah. And in my head I was like, I can't say that in front of the mom. I can't go, do not play with so and so today. Yeah. They've said they have a poorly stomach and it's so challenging, isn't it?

When that's us. We're like, you know, and it's hard because I, especially at school, they were big thing on attendance. But even with like nursery or childcare, whatever it might be, you know, the pressures of work and stuff mean that sometimes you have to send, like, you can't just keep them home. This, this, you know, sorry, this is once to get a side note.

But it's interesting, I, I looked up if other countries have like a flu season because I was like, it's in, in a hot country, surely. And there's not hot countries. They don't have a flu season. Huh. Wow. Yeah. So just 'cause we have cold weather, that helps spread all the, the cold flu. 'cause everybody's like indoors and everything get a flu.

Oh, huh. Another depressing fact for being in, for the British deal, British country. I just, because I thought about it the other day and I thought, what you like in Spain or somewhere, you know, it's. It's not gonna be the same. It's gonna get colder, but you're gonna have to sit inside all the time. And I was looking up and they're like, oh yes, most, most warmer countries.

Amazing. Direct, uh, correlation to the weather. Yeah. So like in this, in like the colder bits of Spain? Yes. But they're like, no, most hot countries don't have a flu season.

I think it's just been a miserable chat one day. Well, we knew it was gonna be. It does bring you together as a family. Family is ill together. It's a bonding experience. It's a bonding experience, and hopefully this podcast where we moan about it together, it's a bonding experience. Too by that we do better as a couple.

I know it's like you get more frustrated, but like Right. I feel like 'cause we have to work together and struggle together. We like, yeah. Yeah. I mean you appreciate the other person more. You've really been through it and then you like appreciate, you know, you're like, oh thank goodness, cleaned up all that sick stuff.

Thank goodness he did that and, and you do really appreciate it when you get back to like the normal level of chaos, normal level of chaos. Yeah. Great. Yeah, there's loads of washing do, but nobody's thrown up. Um, do we have any other things from listeners or comments or things that people have sent in? We have good suggestions about using like laund, are they, that they call laundromats over here?

Laundre Lat. That is the tur She was saying like, are they take stuff like to the lats and it's dry and washed really quickly. Yeah. I can see, uh, particularly if like us, you don't have a dryer. Yeah. Um, and, and often like the bigger capacity means you can get through more in like one go, whatever. Yeah. I mean, I would say that the tricky bit is, you know, often we've got a pile of stuff that's like literally got a bit gross, but like, you know, like sick, literally like lumps on it.

Like it needs to go in the wash straight away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't just hang onto it and keep it true to take, but the drying thing is quite useful because it does take a while to, to dry. Yeah. Or like other people suggested, like, and we also have this, um, like dehumidifiers. Oh yeah, yeah. We use that.

Um, stuff like that. Heated, you know what other things. Also the things are drying quicker now that we've put the heating on the house. Yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah. I mean that's just general laundry tips anyway, but just to, you know, combat the excess. Yeah. Amount of laundry that you have. Do get in touch with us.

Share your thoughts about the episode and we'll try and share stuff. Uh, you know, I've just got Becky calling me. I wanna see if she wants to talk on the podcast. Can you say, hi? Are you doing your podcast? Yeah. What I wanted, do you wanna be on it?

I wanted you to be involved in, I was thinking I wanted them to play the game, but they won't play with me. What game? You know the, the Meatball song and you sing it more and more distress. As you go along? No, I don't know this. I think they played it with us one Christmas. Oh yes. I think you did do it one Christmas.

Yeah. Do you wanna tell? Do you wanna tell? Do it? This said, good job. You said what? Because I was like, I, can you explain it for the podcast? What? What happens in the meatball song? You know the song on top of spaghetti, all cup, all covered in cheese, but in the game you get more and more, most.

Okay.

And my children think it's not cool. They don't wanna play. They think it's my version, but they won't do their version. I think that was worth an insert. You want me to keep that in the podcast? I'll, I'll turn you off and I'll call back in a second. I just, I just was gonna let you be part of it. Yeah. She.

It doesn't disappoint Becky what they do. Yeah. I didn't expect it to be like I'm singing a meatball song. Huh. Well, it really has been a A to all over episode. A hodgepodge Pickle Pty. I didn't even say that. Right. Anyway, right. We'll wrap it up. This episodes go on. Sounds like something that like would happen with an icon hodgepodge and eagerly picky.

Well, thank you for listening. Tune back in next time. It's been lovely having you. It has. We've enjoyed your company immensely amongst all the badges and rabbits. Oh, yes, yes. That in our little borough, under the ground, hibernating for winter, away from the illness. Don't wake the baby. Have a good journey home.

No. Don't you eat the baby. It's rather, no, it's better me. Don't wake the baby. Not eat the baby. Did you to say that? No, I didn't say that. I think Elliot's hungry.