Friday, February 10, 2012

When Women Are Sick

On the way to work on Thursday, one of the morning radio deejays was talking about his wife feeling sick the night before. When he asked her about feeling faint and if she wanted to go to the hospital, she admitted that the first thought to go through her head when she felt sick was not about her own well-being: her first thoughts were Who will do the laundry if I'm sick? and Is the house clean enough to have company over to visit? and Will everything that needs to be done get done?

I dare say that men do not think that way at all when they get sick. They are probably more worried about who will take care of them, not about their responsibilities to everyone else. Okay, so I'm probably generalizing.

This week I came down with either nasty allergies or a cold, whatever it is, it really hit hard on Wednesday. But instead of taking care of myself, I was more concerned with going to work on Thursday and taking care of business. I certainly didn't do that out of some martyrdom: I think it is a natural instinct of women to be more concerned about the world around them than their own well-being.

After hearing the radio deejay talk about his wife, I questioned why my reasons for going to work outweighed my own health. By noon, I was exhausted, coughing, sneezing, miserable, so I came home.

And today, Friday, I took care of me.

1 comment:

Jen said...

I hope you're feeling better! It's important to remember, as women who run the world, we can't do anything if we don't care for ourselves.