Last week, I was struck down with COVID for the second time.
My sister did a RAT on Thursday evening after I left as she had what she thought were hayfever symptoms from Tuesday; it was only when Zoe was out of sorts that day and turned for the worst in the evening that she thought she better check. She and Zoe are no longer unicorns, both having their COVID cherry popped.
I had some work with RA on Friday and a craft camp on Saturday, so I was hyperaware of any possible symptoms but was at the same time hopeful that my current less is more lifestyle (eating and sleeping well, more play, less work) would pay off and my immune system could handle it. I did a RAT on Friday and Saturday to be safe, and both were negative, but when I woke up on Sunday morning, I felt half-dead.
I didn’t need to test to confirm it was COVID. I felt it through my whole body. My mother and sister asked if I did a RAT, and I said no, I don’t need to. Mum told me she needs to know if I have COVID because we had lunch together on Thursday (with Zoe). I pointed out that they were sick first, so it’s doubtful I was infected with COVID at lunch, and the exposure was likely when I was helping Nicole get dinner ready, and Zoe was crying and snotting all over me. Besides, I didn’t have the energy to stick a swab up my nose to confirm what I already knew. It was the couch and TV. My head hurt too much to read. In the afternoon, I had to drag myself to my computer to ask my uni peers if we could reschedule our online meeting as I was not up to attending. Monday was spent much the same. I watched three television series in 2 days, which I never do, as I prefer to listen to music or read books. It was quite a different experience to last year when I read 4 books in 7 days while sick with COVID.
My mother popped in Monday morning with food and a COVID test, giving me no choice. She unwrapped the swab and made me take it right before her. I told her I didn’t need to do one, and she said, “We need to know what we are dealing with”. I didn’t have the energy to fight her further. I’d already explained my reasoning that I haven’t seen anybody except Nicole and Zoe; therefore, the probability of me having COVID is 100%. I said, I’m sick; I’m not going anywhere, so taking a test is unnecessary because the protocol is the same either way. If you’re sick, stay home. Unsurprisingly, the RAT returned a double line and was followed with, “Oh, it is COVID”. Yep, no shit. She then sent a picture of the positive RAT to the family group chat and said she hoped it wouldn’t be COVID; my sister hoped it wasn’t. Part of me feels that they were hoping it wasn’t COVID because then it meant they I didn’t catch the sickness of my family, and that is better for their conscience.
My question is, how old do I need to be for my boundaries, wants and needs to be respected by a parent?
I’m not a parent (yet), but my siblings often tell me I’ll understand when I have children in response to me providing some psychological insight into child/human behaviour and aware parenting concepts. But I feel this is different to having your boundaries respected by your parent when you’re a 36-year-old adult.
I feel much better now but I was out of action most of last week. Thankfully, I recovered in time to attend the end-of-year Rowing Australia awards, which I had been excited about as it was the first sports award night I’d received an invitation to, despite working at the Brumbies for 11 seasons.
TV series I watched were:
Bump Season 2
Year Of Season 1
Totally Completely Fine (this was an excellent series inspired by true-life events that I feel my friends from
resilience will enjoy.
Tricky one.
Even after 15 months I still consider myself a very new parent. I'm trying my hardest to be the absolute best parent I can be and whenever Sonny is sick I try desperately to figure out what it is that's upsetting him, but my motivation is to take his discomfort away. It makes it harder again when he can't explain how he is feeling or where it hurts.
My mum can be a little over the top too, but I'm starting to understand that wanting her to change in any way is a waste of my energy. She is well and truly set in her ways. Perhaps some people might think this isn't the right thing to do, but in a situation like yours I probably would have just lied and told her I had done the test and it was positive, especially given the condition you were in, I'd have just done whatever took the least effort to appease her and get her off my case, haha.
Glad you're better. COVID bloody sucks.
Deep down she wants the best for you, but she has to realise you're a more than capable adult.
Part of me feels like your mum is projecting her own feelings onto you.