Pants-Free Parenting: Winter brings snow, cold and sick kids

The first time my husband was sick around our then, 6-month-old baby girl, I banished him to the guest room. 'Don't touch the baby!' I told him when he came home from the doctor with a prescription for antibiotics and a hacking cough.

'It's just an ear infection,' he said. 'I don't think they are contagious.'

My only response was to glare.

Flash forward four years to a few weeks ago, when my husband again came home bearing a prescription for an ear infection and a cough. The moment he walked in the door, I handed him the 2-year-old. 'Here take him,' I said. 'He's insane today'

'But I'm sick,' my husband protested.

'Join the club!' I yelled and ran away. I imagine if we were to have a third and a fourth, there wouldn't even be a protest. He'd just take the baby, pop a pill and we'd be off. But I'm not willing to do the work to find out what other enlightenment I'd receive. Right now, two kids in the middle of the winter is enough for me.

Because, it's February in Iowa and we are all sick. My 2-year-old has had a runny nose for almost three months. My 4-year-old wakes up every morning with a cough. Our house hums with humidifiers, and our food is loaded with Vitamin C. But it makes no difference. We are sick and we will remain this way until we are thawed out.

Recently, a friend shared with me an article that advised parents not to send their kids to school if they were running a fever, had a cough or a runny nose. The fever makes sense. But a cough? A runny nose? No child under the age of 6 would attend school from November through March.

And it's always so hard to tell if kids are getting sick. Some nights, I'll hear complaints about stomachs and throats and make plans to keep them home from school. But next day, they will be up and running around, apparently all they needed was a good bowel movement. My 2-year-old especially occupies this space of me never knowing — is he getting his molars? Is he sick? Is he just being a jerk? Either way, the remedy is always the same, Tylenol and a nap for mom. And for the 2-year-old, I just give him some more orange juice and hope it either goes away or turns into something that makes him sleep all the time.

I often hear people complaining about being around sick children. But in this short and dirty life of ours, I've learned that sickness — like poop and sunshine — is inevitable. And in the end, Hy-Vee will deliver Tylenol and juice to my house and we have blankets and 'The Lego Movie.' What more do we need?

• Lyz Lenz is a writer, mother of two and hater of pants. Email her at eclenz@gmail.com or find her writing at LyzLenz.com.