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Struggling with being ill more frequently as a parent

3 replies

UndertheMapleTree · 20/04/2025 18:49

This post is basically inspired by me feeling sorry for myself but I’m currently struggling with the fact that since I’ve had my DS 4 years ago I just seem to get much much more ill than I ever did. Before I had DS I was pretty healthy, exercised regularly and could, I guess, take a weekend to do nothing and recover when I did get a bug. I would have the very odd day off work but that was it, whereas over the past couple of years I have had a number of bugs that have turned into full on illnesses where I’ve had to take multiple days off work and been almost unable to function. It’s not necessarily related to DS - he is actually almost never ever ill, thank god so isn’t passing things on to me - but it seems to have coincided with being a parent. Although maybe it’s post Covid? I’m sure I didn’t get chest infections pre covid.

I’ve just had a whole week off work with a horrible fever that’s now turned into a hacking couch and exhaustion. I feel like my boss probably thinks I’m such a delicate flower and I feel so guilty having to leave DH to manage everything around his full time work when I’m sick (we have no family support who might lend a hand when I’m ill).

I generally eat well, don’t drink much, exercise when I’m normal (lots of walking, can run a 5k a couple of times a week, swim) and I take lots of iron as I am anaemic due to heavy periods. I do have a full on job with lots of overtime and quite a big volunteer role that has a hefty time commitment. But every single small cold/bug I get now seems to turn into a full on Victorian malady where I’m confined to bed and just can’t get well.

Can anyone else identify? Or offer advice if it gets better?

OP posts:
MyIvyGrows · 20/04/2025 18:52

Watching with interest as I am in a similar situation - not with severity of illness, but the frequency is doing my head in. I hardly had one cold per year before parenthood, now it’s every six weeks or so.

UndertheMapleTree · 21/04/2025 09:35

Oh that sounds very familiar @MyIvyGrows with all the colds. At the moment I can’t work properly, I can’t parent and I’m leaving everything to DH and I feel so guilty.

OP posts:
Thestarsinthesky · 21/04/2025 09:40

I feel this… it’s one cold after another. One child gets a cough and then I get it, it’s constant. I miss not getting poorly!!

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