For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 29, 2013

And “working mother,” ladies and gentlemen, is not an oxymoron!

Just pray Elly doesn’t get Elizabeth’s illness.

Reminds me of when my son was small, and we’d moved to a new place. He wanted me to stay by his bed as he went ot sleep. The floor wasn’t confortable, but sitting next to his bed made him feel better, and for a parent, that’s all the reason you need.

That is just silly. How could she type on that short table with a full sized chair?

I believe that parents staying with their hospitalized kids is fairly recent.

Not really, I had a car accident in 1967 and my mom stayed with me every night, the hospital brought a cot for her to sleep on.

But this became more the norm rather than the exception when parents finally figured out that THEY were the parent and the hospital had no LEGAL right to ban them from being with their child, except when treatment is being adminiistered.

at least she has a job she can do at home. What about all the co-workers having to pick up slack when mom or dad stays home with the kid. stay home and raise your kids

Being a Mother is a full time job 24/7 if you work or not. Think about it… chef, laundress, maid, nurse, ,mediator, housekeeper, and teacher. Put the pay together, for 18 years and tell me how much a Mother is worth.

“Working mother” is not an oxymoron. It is a redundancy.Hopefully, though, Elizabeth can help Elly reset her priorities. She seems to have forgotten that, while her work may provide some fleeting entertainment, her support for Elizabeth will be forever.

I believe they’re given a certain amount of discretion as to parents doing sleepovers probably based upon a certain amount of profiling. Basically, if you look like you’re capable of behaving yourself and causing a minimum of disruption, or even better taking on some of the workload, camp out to your heart’s content.

It’s great that medical institutions now let people sleep beside their ill loved ones. I slept in a recliner chair beside my dying mother in a dementia unit during the last days of her life. It was such a blessing for me and I believe it gave great comfort to my mother.

She couldn’t do any of those things because they would not have been funny.

“I believe that parents staying with their hospitalized kids is fairly recent.”It probably is in some places. But fifty-one years ago I was allowed to spend the night in a Columbus, GA, hospital when my elder daughter needed surgery. The surgeon did a crummy job, but I dug up a good one, Dr. A, in St. Petersburg, FL, and was allowed to stay overnight there at Bayfront Medical Center.Our younger daughter needed the same surgery c. forty-five years ago. Dr. A would not operate without an anesthesiologist (a physician), not an anesthetist (not a physician), and the Bayfront anesthesioloshad died or gotten sick. I called the Catholic hospital, and a woman said icily, “Children are not permitted in the pediatric ward!” (Imagine!) So we waited until Bayfront was able to come up with an anesthesiologist. The operations went well, and now the elder daughter is a physician.

When I had sick kids (still do, for that matter), they are charmed to lie on the living-room couch and watch TV, read, or sleep. I fortify the couch with a plastic cover, a single-bed mattress pad, a pillow, and covers, plus liquids or whatever within reach. That way I can get some work done, respond to the child, and not have to hunker down on kid chairs.

A Typewriter???

Every Mother is a working Mother.

No, Lynn, dear, that’s not a doctor. That’s a nurse.

I agree about the bigger chair.