For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 17, 2009

Sure thing, That should help pull your immune system down just fine. All too many of us aughta’ know.

Just rest, that’ll do the most good.

Stay at home moms with small kids CAN’T rest when sick, unless they want to be behind on laundry and other chores for the rest of the year. Husbands pinch hit well, but they don’t carry the game.

Howtheduck: don’t you think that they would have been exposed well before putting on a shirt that she washed? Just sharing the car with her, or the same room would result in worse than whatever they would catch from those special dry-clothing-dwelling virii.

She did the laundry because it needed to be done and there was no one else to do it. Stay at home parents (either gender) do not get “time off sick” like people who work outside the home. If you don’t do at least a little it builds up past being able to conquer it. And if she is sick she’s already “passed it on” to the family; you are most infectious just before you get symptoms!

This is typical for a mom. She feels like if she can get up then she might as well get something done.

Good morning, Duck. The love for this comic never ends for you, does it?

Proves women are stronger than men.

Sick people don’t understand that they’re not doing anybody favors when they’re hacking and sneezing all over the place, whether it be at work (get all your coworkers sick so they stay home and the whole office productivity suffers), or at home, contaminating the clean laundry, plates and utensils and whatever else Elly comes into contact with. Don’t forget to give the kids a good bye kiss and again when you tuck them into bed!

She’s doing the laundry because she’s restless, not because it needs to be done. Remembering that this cartoon was originally written in the 80s, I don’t believe her martyrdom is as typical as it once was. In our house, though I work 50+ hours a week in addition to parental volunteering sorts of things, I also do laundry and cook (not all meals but at least one a day).

algurka is right that she does nobody any favors by wearing herself down. Far less is important to do than we imagine. Let the stupid laundry lie there, let the kids fend for themselves, call a friend to watch them. It’s not that hard, but I notice in this strip Ellie has a lot of guilt tapes playing in her head about having to do it all. Not a good thing.

Speaking of people who go to work when they’re sick and pass the germs to others, well, too many employers will not pay you for a sick day and if you don’t work you don’t gt paid. Since a lot of people can’t afford to take a day off without pay they have to work when they’re sick.

Poor Elly, she is trying to do the right thing and it’s never good enough. That’s probably why I like her so much.

Sickness stinks, but really, you are contagious for several days-not 1 or 2- including before you show symptoms. Those of you who are allowed to take a week off sick for each cold you get can talk, but most of us who have 3 or 4 days sick per year and are scrutinised as to whether we are sick enough or not (don’t say to take the day unpaid- your sick days can get you fired as is)– or those who live and work at home can’t really isolate ourselves the way you want. So we all have to deal with it.

Wow - she even folds all their laundry - gone are those days…

At 6 and 2 the kids are too young to fend for themselves.

When there’s no one else to do the work, you do it, sick or not.

@masnadies - Too right about the use of sick leave. A co-worker of mine was hospitalized with heart failure and when he returned to work he was suspended for 10 days for using all his sick leave. I got pneumonia, and when my doctor released me to return to work, my boss fired me, saying I was “unreliable” despite the fact that I had the highest production and accuracy rate in my job classification.

Speaking of people in the workplace, think about John. He is a dentist. He spends all day working in peoples mouths, and I am sure some of them come in even if sick so they don’t have to reschedule.

Gloves and masks only go so far in fighting germs. I am surprised he doesn’t get sick more often.

as a single dad, i can relate to the plight of keeping the household going when i was sick, no matter what, things still needed to get done, it never mattered what gender a person is

Is that leg hair stubble I see on Elly’s legs? Great detail work, Lynn.

I like Yukoneric’s comment.

Exposure to germs helps you build up a natural immunity to them. It’s our first defense.

Typical, I do that too.

Could this be the swine flu?

Only if it’s the 1970s strain (although Lynn probably could have updated this strip for the 2009 version.)

And I find it completely believeable that Elly would insist on getting up and working even though she’s sick. I remember being in the hospital last July after having my pacemaker implanted. The first night, I was instructed not to get ouf of bed for any reason (including potty breaks – the portable urinal became my best friend!) The next morning, the nurse asked me whether I’d gotten up to do any walking. I told her I hadn’t because I’d been told to stay in bed, and she told me that from that point on, she wanted to see me up and walking about the floor in the ICU unit for at least a few minutes. Actually, I was more than happy to comply, because I was so bored just lying in bed that I started getting up and walking around every thirty minutes or so just to break the monotony!

In the 70’s Moms did it all. Part of the reason for the high divorce rate. I still try to, but fail miserably thank goodness. Finally figured out that dust is not a killer disease but high blood pressure certainly is.

lay down that will do the job