"Doctor, he's feeling kinda funny"

“Mommy I’m feeling sick, can I stay home from school today?”

Ahhhh, remember the good ole’ childhood days, when you wanted to stay home from school ‘cuz you werent feeling well… or at least pretended so ;) Those days were my favorites. Staying home from school was always fun, as it normally meant sitting in front of the video screen and watching videos all day, eating as much nosh as I wanted to, and yes, hanging out with my mom.

My mom is the greatest. Getting permission from my mom to stay home from school was never a problem, she understood us kids so well, I’ll always remember the stories my mom told me of how she used to play hooky with her sisters and end up in a shopping mall instead of in class, so if we ever weren’t feeling well or “weren’t feeling well about going to school” all we had to do was put a groggy look on our sweet angelic faces and walk over to our mom clutching either our stomachs or out heads, depending on what was meant to be hurting and whimper “Mommy, my stomach/head is hurting me, please can I stay home from school today, pullleeeezzee!”

Now I’d like to think that my mom actually knew whether we were faking or not, but she almost always let us stay home, especially if she happened to be going out shopping that day and needed a babysitter, oh boy those days were great, all we had to do was put the baby to sleep and then it was down to the kitchen to nosh and watch videos all day while checking up on that baby every once in a while and praying the kid would stay asleep until mommy got home. Then of course there were those days when we actually honestly weren’t feeling well, such as if we had strep or a virus. Although it’s never much fun to be sick my dear loving mom always made it worth it, a sore throat meant lots of hot cocoa in which we would dump tons of chocolate chips for extra flavor, Yummy. And if it were a stomachache then my mom would prepare for us special meals such as toast and butter or any other food which might have been good for us (chicken soup anyone?), and then we could lay in bed all day and read books forever, or sit in front of the video screen and all and end up with a “real” headache from movie overdose! Oy I tell you, those were the days.

I must point out however that there was one major obstacle to those amazing “sick” days, and that obstacle would be… My dad! Yup my daddy, you see, unlike my mom who has no special feelings toward school, my father teaches in one, yup my dad the teacher, and of course as you can imagine not just in any school but in my school, (trust me I’ve got plenty to write about that, but I’ll save it for another time) anyhow, so lets just say getting away with skipping school was not that easy with my dad, unlike my mom where all it took was a little puppy eyed begging, with my dad it was a whole different scene. My father would walk into our rooms every morning to wake us up to get ready to drive to school with him, and if we ever wanted to stay home we would have to put up a major show, the little headache act never fooled my dad, no way, to stay home required major pain, and we had to make it look like we meant it. We had to squirm and howl in pain to get off the hook, and pray that we would pass the lie detector test, and trust me, if we were to pass the test then that was the ultimate relief, once our dad left the room and we were home free, we would roll over with a beaming smile to the envy of the other siblings, and start planning out how to make the best out of “the sick day”

Thank G-d I’m 23 now and done with school, yet it always brings a smile to my face when I’m up in the morning and hear how my younger siblings are trying their best to talk their way out of going to school for the day. And I just had to smile to myself the other day when I didn’t manage to go to sleep until after 7 in the morning and as I’m heading down to my room to go to sleep my dad walks downstairs and asked me “CS, what are doing up now?” And I in reply put a pained look on my face and in the groggiest voice possible replied “Ta, its hard for me to sleep, I’m not feeling that well”

Ahhh, the good old days.