Contrary to the belief of our kids, parents aren’t superheroes. You might not even believe your child thinks that you are a superhero, but they do. They look up to you as someone that they can always turn to, has their back and looks after them no matter what. This begins at a very early age, and if you’re lucky, that wonderful belief will transform into mutual respect and a deeper understanding of your role in their life.
This is why it can be disheartening and deeply upsetting when you get ill. You may not have the means to constantly look after them anymore and depending on how serious the illness is, it can be quite a drastic change for your child. So, let’s look at the ways to deal with this and make sure you are still there for your kids.
Explain It In A Way They Understand
Very young children won’t always understand what illness is, particularly if it’s serious and has drastically changed your appearance or your mood. You should try to explain it in a way that they will understand and perhaps shield them from the reality of the situation. Use your imagination here and make sure they understand that you are okay. You need to reassure them that everything is fine because kids can sense when something is wrong. www.brighthorizons.com has some tips on how to explain illness to children.
Looking After Them Financially
It’s quite possible that an illness or injury has left it difficult for you to provide for your kids financially. If you are married, or you have a partner who works, it can be easier to handle. If you don’t and you are instead a single parent, you could be looking at a difficult road ahead to provide for your family for at least a few weeks, until you get back on your feet. That’s why you might want to think about whether your illness or injury could have been prevented. There are practices like www.elanlaw.com that specialize in getting damages for people who have been injured at work or on someone else’s property. If you were injured and it wasn’t your fault, you should be able to claim on damage to keep your family afloat.
Provide Them With A Support System
When you’re ill, you might not always be able to be there, physically or emotionally, for your children. Due to this, you need to make sure that they have a different support system in place. This could be your partner or other members of the family. It might also be their grandparents or aunt and uncle. They just need someone who they can rely on until you recover. As long as they have this, your kids will be okay during a time when you might not be able to look after them like you used to. You can find out more about this on www.intermountainhealthcare.org.
Look After Yourself
Finally, a lot of parents always put their kids first, and this is one of the reasons they get sick. You do need to take this time to recover, look after yourself and wait for your body to get better. Otherwise, you’ll just make things worse. Every so often you do need a little ‘me time,’ even if it’s just to nurse yourself back to good health.
Photo by Mark Colomb (Flickr)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
via Wikimedia Commons
Leave A Comment