Man colds

The other day my almost three year old woke up with a runny nose and a small cough. In the morning he lounged around, laying about on the sofa, whining to watch his favorite cartoons and thinking that he was about to be full blown sick.

In the afternoon, the scenario took a bit of a turn. He was up running around, throwing things, screaming, laughing and generally carrying on in a normal, non-sick toddler fashion. Then, I tried to have him pick up his toys, suddenly a faucet of snot sprang out of his nose, a weak cough was emitted from between his lips along with some sort of high pitched whine, as he threw himself on the couch. That's when it hit me.....my son, though not even three, had his first "man cold". For any one that may not be familiar with the term, a man cold is when a simple cold completely, totally, and unequivocally incapacitates a member of the the male sex. I have seen man colds put the strongest of men on the couch, cuddled up with "blankies", whining that they need their soup, and asking "do I have a feeeeeeeeeever?"

So when staring down the barrel of my son's first man cold, I realized, I could, put a stop to the vicious cycle that perpetuates the man cold. So I did what any other mother would do when faced with the same choice. I looked into the big brown eyes of my whining son, I wiped of the snot that was dripping down his upper lip and told him, "Suck it up J"