The Throw Up Parent

Last night Snake got sick. Violently sick,if you get my drift. Three times. Evenly spaced two hour intervals staring at 11:00 p.m. It seemed just as I was slipping off into sleep again, he was up again. I felt bad for him. But I felt bad for me too. Because I am "the throw up parent" in our family. Every family has one. The person that usually gets up and cleans up. It doesn't have to be every time but it is most times. And it is usually 100 percent if the "event" happens after 10:00 p.m. Chizz has the ability to "sleep" through it all. Actually he can pretend longer than me. When the kids were little and one would cry in the middle of the night, we would both lie there perfectly still, pretending to be asleep until one of us cracked. Then we decided that sleep wasn't more important than having Children's Protective Services show up at our door so we came up with a system to determine who's turn it was to get up in the middle of the night. We haven't developed a throw up system yet. I guess it happens too rarely to develop a system. Curse that mothering gene! I can hear them get up and just by listening I can determine that it is not a usual trip in the middle of the night. Something in the urgency of the door opening or the quickness of their steps. I know in an instant something is wrong. And I listen, and (gross) I hear. Chizz is asleep. He "sleeps" through me asking if everything is okay. He "sleeps" through the very weak 'no'. He "sleeps" through me finding more towels, cleaning up and then getting into bed, three times. It is okay. I really don't mind. In our old house Chizz was the "get rid of something that died or was killed in our backyard" person. And not every family has one of those!!