On Monday, while at gymnastics with J, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my sweatshirt pocket, ready to reject the telemarketing call when I saw it was the nurse from C’s school.

FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!

He had a stuffy nose the previous night. I checked him for fever before I put him on the bus, and the way he was running around with J, I knew he was fine. The temps have dropped again here, so a little nasal congestion isn’t out of the ordinary.

I answer the call, and the first thing she says is, “Nothing’s wrong…”

WHY CALL IF NOTHING IS WRONG?!?

He had a coughing fit while eating Pirates Booty, so his teacher sent him to her office. She checked, and he had no fever. She even admitted that the air is dryer in the building, so the kids tend to cough more while there than at home. She called me to tell me that they might send him home. It was a heads-up that I might have to come get him.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been given a “heads up” call. The heads-up call makes me sweat bullets. They mean well, but it’s the last thing I want.

Then I hung up the phone, annoyed that my mind had already started pouring on the extra guilt that I sent him to school and didn’t notice he was sick even though some days it feels like all I do is stare at them like I can catch the instant they go from healthy to unhealthy.

As I packed J up and put him in the car at the end of class, I reviewed my to-do list for the day. I recently started as a remote EA for a marketing company, so I had tasks to complete for them. During the course of the day, for every task I started, I kept myself ready to stop in the middle, grab J — and hopefully not have to fight with him — and head to the school.

All day I worked and waited, and the call never came. The next time I saw C was when his bus driver pulled into the driveway to drop him off.

I wonder if the school nurses know the emotional turmoil moms go through every time they call. It’s not fun, and it’s not funny. I understand that in a post-COVID world — and I say post-COVID because we know what it is now and how to treat it — they have to be extra vigilant when it comes to sick kids in school. I also understand that not every part can stay home when their kid has the sniffles. I’m grateful that I’m in the position to be able to drop what I’m doing and pick C up if I need to. I just don’t want to be called unless I have to go get him because I swear every call from the school nurse adds ten grey hairs and ages me another six months!