Nice to have mommy-toddler days sometimes

By Dr. Heather Bozant Witcher
Young Adults

As every parent knows, the start of the school year is hectic. As all teachers know, the best laid syllabus and plans are promptly disrupted by the arrival of students. (Perhaps there’s something to be said here about parents who are also teachers: We’re good at thinking on our toes.)

I’m not sure why I thought this year would be different. Perhaps I was just being naïve and optimistic.

My semester has only been in session for three weeks – but in those three weeks, I have considered joining gymnastics to accommodate my increasing flexibility.

In the first week of school, I knew something was wrong around lunchtime when the director of the daycare called to say something was “off” about one of my children. There were no signs – no fevers, cough, nothing. Did I want to come get him? I looked quickly at my planner and thought about the class that I had yet to meet that day – no. He’s fine, I told myself.

Literally three minutes before the start of my class, the next phone call came. Fever had spiked to 104 during nap. As I scrambled to say hello and goodbye to my students – promising an e-mail and rescheduling of assignments – I raced to the car to pick everyone up and head to the pediatrician.

A fever virus, they said. Nothing more than a fever virus, meant to scare the daylights out of parents. That night, he was his normal self – bouncing around and splashing all the water out of the bathtub. But the daycare policy, as many parents know, is 24 hours fever-free. So, Ollie experienced college the very next day.

I toted him around campus. He met my students (who adored him), he made a marker and paint mural for my office, found every paper clip that I had dropped on the floor over the last three years and read a lot of books.

I had been nervous – my office isn’t toddler-proofed, and it’s probably only a bit larger than a closet. What were we going to do? He was fine. And that night, as I tucked him into bed, he said he had the “best mama-Ollie day.”

The following week, after I finished a physical therapy session with my youngest, I turned to Ollie and saw that he was wheezing. After a breathing treatment, he was no better. Off to urgent care we went – and waited for over two hours. By the time 11 p.m. rolled around, we needed emergency treatment. We again had another “mama-Ollie day,” where we alternated my work, his steroids, and “rest” – per the doctor’s instructions.

I’m beyond grateful to have a job that allows for my flexibility, and for students who understand that sometimes life happens. And in those moments, amid frustration and anxiety, I felt the gentle sounds of a whisper. A small reminder that despite our best human efforts at control, we have very little of it.

As I held Ollie’s hand, walking him to my classroom, he pinpointed all the activities (lawnmowers, hammocks, fountains) that I had failed to see. In the classroom, he busied himself with snacks, drawing on the whiteboard and smiling broadly at me. Everything was new to him; it was fun and exciting.

Was this how I envisioned the start to my semester? Absolutely not. But God’s plan was better – one-on-one time and a reminder to see the world through a child’s eyes with wonderment and excitement.

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