How to Care for a Sick Child 101

Kuki, poor baby, is under the weather.

It started last weekend with a runny nose, high fever and a nasty ear infection, and just when we thought she was better, Kuki is sounding like an Alaskan baby seal this weekend.

The humans had to take time off from work to watch her last week. Mom would leave in the morning before everybody awoke, return at lunchtime, only to have dad dash off to work, often until midnight.

Contact between the caregivers was limited to garage talk: “Temperature's about 103.2. Gave her Motrin an hour ago. She hasn’t eaten anything. Bye, see you later!”

As expected, mom’s now racked with guilt. The woulda, coulda, shoulda kind of person that she is, she blames herself for leaving the kids in the care of virtual strangers in a daycare center, exposing them to germs and goodness know what else. And look at how much weight Kuki's lost in these three weeks - the poor child's starving because her mom's not there to spoon-feed her. And, of course, she's going to get fired if she takes any more time off.

So, how exactly does this woman handle a crisis? She does what any self-respecting, mature, normal, 30-something desi would do - she goes crying to her mom.

"How soon can you get here?" she whines into the phone, knowing fully well that grandma will be torn between leaving grandpa to fend for himself for the next six months (he gets bored here in less than a week,) and lending her daughter a helping hand.

"That's why I keep telling you to move back to India," says grandma. "Or at least move to Singapore/Malaysia if you still want to live abroad."

Not a bad idea.

When mom becomes CEO of the company, she'll seriously consider it.