What I was thinking was that, really, my mom did a pretty good job raising me.
You see, while we were living in Indonesia, back when there were only four of us in one house, my original housemates and I, every time any of us would fall sick, the others would go out of their way in taking care of them. Like say, Qilah was sick. Wan and Fiqi would make her bubur, bring her cool towels and maybe rub her head with this vile concoction made from Asam Jawa that would supposedly help with the headache and keep the fever down. Except for me. All I would do was maybe stick my head in the room and ask her how she's doing, I have some more paracetamol (if I had any) and if she wanted it, I was upstairs.
Some people would call me a callous and heartless bitch, but really, that's how I show I cared. If I didn't I probably wouldn't even bother to knock.
Now, what I mean to say is, I have never understood the need for over pampering while sick. I don't get why you need to make special food, have cool towels, and make vial concoctions from Asam Jawa. Thankfully, they never did any of that to me. And I'm generally fine with that. Sometimes they wouldn't even know that I was sick, and suddenly one day, I'd come down to the living room with no voice. And that's fine.
I once asked Aqilah about it. Was she bothered by the fact that I had never done any of those things that the others would do for her. Because I have never understood the need for all of it. And she said that she understood. My home life and theirs are vastly different. Mostly she just figured because my dad was a doctor, we never really had to care if we were sick or anything, but she wasn't exactly far of the mark.
As I remember anyway, when I was a kid, whenever I was sick with fever, my mum would tell me to get the green syrup from the fridge and drink it (somehow, paracatemol came in green syrup, don't ask me why). Sometimes, if we were really clogged up and couldn't breath, she'd make this special thing with Vicks and hot water, make us put our faces over it, and cover our heads with a towel so that we would breath in the fumes. She never really pampered us over much.
I don't know. That's just how I remember it. I always just went on with it whatever I was supposed to do, and eat my medicine so I'd get better.
You see all the television mums sitting at their kid's bedsides and taking temperatures every half hour and wiping down sweat or whatever, it is they do. And in my family, it was always, go take that medicine, and go to sleep.
It wasn't that she didn't care, no. It's just that she didn't pamper. If we were sick, sometimes we'd still go to school. Just because.
So when I listened to all my friend's stories on how, when they were sick, they would cry and cry and want to eat porridge or soup or have their mum lie down with them or something, I couldn't really understand why. And when that carried on into the now, when they were sick and would have all their housemates be worried, and go out of their ways to bring her stuff, I still don't get it. At all.
As you may have figured out, I never understood why some people would not go to work over a stomachache. Because I still would have. And I have. Of course if I was sick, I'd take other precautions like wear face masks all the time. If I had a headache, or a stomachache, or really anything, I'd still pretty much go to work. One time, I had a tummy virus and ran a fever that was 39oC and still went to work and stayed my on call shift. The rational at that time was, having to take over a friend's shift if they had covered mine would have been so bothersome.
So, yeah. I'm kinda glad I am the way I am. Though the bad side of it is that I tend to expect the same from other people. I'm pretty glad my mum raised me to be this person who I am now.
Once, when I was a kid and had a fever, I was sleeping in my room and my brothers had barged in and were making a lot of noise and I had woken up, but I hadn't opened my eyes yet and was generally cursing them to hell as sister's are wont to do. Then, my mum came in and made them all go out because I was sick. She then put her hand to my brow, to feel for a temperature and followed my brothers out. And I went back to sleep. When I woke up, she made me go get the medicine from the fridge for myself.
And that's how sick kids get treated in my home.
Thanks mum.
akunona
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