When I was ill recently I got really desperate. I have no family nearby and my friends all have children of their own. Whilst they were happy to help me with school runs I didn't feel able to ask for anything else.
I felt terrible with a high temperature. DH helped out as much as he could for the first week then he had to go away. I really thought I'd be better by then but it continued and got worse and worse.
I asked my mum to come and help and she ummed and ahhed and decided she didn't want to because her dog sometimes won't eat his dinner when he's at my house.
I got more and more ill. Every night I was sweating so much you could ring wetness out of my clothes. I also smelled really strongly every morning. My temperature got higher (40+ every night) and I had to just keep going, looking after four kids, cooking, cleaning, breastfeeding night and day, laundry, school runs ... On my own.
I became really desperate. I remember one evening having put the kids to bed collapsing on the sofa, going in and out of sleep/conciousness, and seeing my ds1 (5) standing over me looking worried. I had no idea what time it was or why he was up.
Again the following day I begged my mum to come and help. She said she had pilates and the car was booked in for some kind of check so she couldn't come.
Finally an two old friends came to visit by chance on the same day. I was literally shivering on the sofa so one called the doctor. He came, examined me and called an ambulance. I was in hospital for four days and nights and I've never been so ill in my whole life. They couldn't believe that I'd carried on with a temperature so high. (I had pnuemonia).
Then my mum came. It was too late. DH arrived home shortly after her and I had two friends doing a very fine job of looking after the kids. She didn't help either.
I wondered if she felt at all guilty because she agreed to come and help out a fortnight later because dh was working away. This was great because I wanted to get to the MN meet up. Once again though she let me down and decided not to come. She had a tummy bug on Tuesday, was better by Thursday, but still wouldn't come.
She has always been selfish but now I'm finding it hard to like her. When she does come here she spends her time sitting down so as not to disturb her dog. The kids irritate her, she never cooks, won't do school runs because she doesn't like the other mums in the playground, doesn't wash up. She does sit and talk to me all day long when I'm trying to work. She talks over the kids and it's always about TV programmes she has seen or horrible car crashes which have happened near her.
I invited her for Christmas because she's on her own, but she's so negative, selfish and unchristmassy that I already have building hurt and resentment.
If you made it to the end of this, thanks.
Any coping tips?