Sometimes I hate being the nurse in the family

Nurses General Nursing

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How does anyone else handle this? I have a husband and three kids. Two of the kids are older teens, the baby is 2.5. Baby is sick right now and is one of those who pukes whenever she gets sick with anything. How come, when this tiny morsel of humanity throws up, Dad and Bro and Sis freeze and forget how to do anything except yell, "She's throwing up!!" No matter where I am in this house I have to come running to clean things up. How do the rest of you handle this with your families?

Specializes in ICU, Tele, Dialysis.

No, they never stop throwing up on you.

Specializes in ICU, Tele, Dialysis.
This got me thinking about another post about wearing your scrubs into stores.

People will always be asking for advice
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I just take my badge off and tell them I'm in housekeeping!!!!

My husband retches and gags cleaning up the cat's hairballs....I guess I am the only one who can handle the vomit and that began long before I was a nurse. The kids come to me first anyway. I have to say tho, husband does the dog poop duty and with a dog who is rotti/shephard/lab---the job is....um ...sizeable.

The funniest was when my daughter threw up on a blanket and I told husband to take it outside and spray it with the hose to rinse the chunks off before I washed it and he was trying to shake it out to lay it flat on the grass and a big gust of wind came up and the blanket ended up smooshing itself to his face and head--vomit side to him! I know I shouldn't laugh but having been vomited on consistently for years.....well, it was kinda funny :)

Specializes in Med-Surg.

i couldn't help myself smiling and laughing about the remarks of everyone who posted their experiences about being a nurse in the family. some of it was just funny. as for me, having children in the family exposes oneself to occasional clean-ups. especially when you have young and sickly kids who can't fend for themselves. it becomes the norm for mothers to take care of vomit/ spills etc. even if we don't want to do the job, we have no choice. i think it was part of the agreement we signed when we got married. whether we are nurses or from another profession, it's always the woman's job. one time, my son got so badly sick that he was puking all over the place. at one point, i was still cleaning up the puke when he did it again. lucky for me, my husband was around to help. save me alot of trouble of cleaning up 2 places at one time. it's good to have your spouse around for times like this. as long as we have kids and families, there is always somebody needing our help.

blueviolet

My spouse was one of the people that froze...........picture three grown people freezing in their tracks and staring, then all of them yelling, "SHE'S THROWING UP!!" while I'm on the other end of the house taking care of the clothes she had thrown up on just ten minutes earlier!

I know I shouldn't laugh but having been vomited on consistently for years.....well, it was kinda funny :)

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: I'm right there with you! I knew where that story was going before I finished reading it and was laughing pretty hard as I read on!

My husband has a tendency to yell for help when the little one is sick, especially when she's vomiting but he has been known to clean up whatever may need to be cleaned up...especially at 3am when I've been up for what feels like 3 days with a sick kid and can't take any more.

I also have a "please take this outside and spray it down" story. He took the vomit soaked blankey out the back door (about 5 or 6 a.m. after very little sleep) and decided it would be best to shake it out before laying it on the ground to spray it off...yup, he gave it one *hard* shake as it unraveled and ended up with all those "chunkies" up and down is arms and in his hair...I'm half surprised I wasn't also cleaning up after him that morning!

RNin'08

Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
No, they never stop throwing up on you.

I've had emailed pictures of an ankle. Mom, is it sprained??

Yes, looks that way.

Mom gets vomited on no matter what. Being a nurse is just an added bonus!

I will take that any day over being "my-daughter-the-nurse." I'm sure health care providers I've never met just hate me!! The funny thing about that is that they still won't listen to anything I say.

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

Right after I entered the nursing program a family member gave me a hard time cuz I didn't know what a Mongolian Spot was yet. :trout:

A friend of mine used to call me up for medical advice. Once it was cuz her son had fallen and hit his head and she wanted to know what to watch for. I told her to call her pediatrician.

Another time she called to say she was writing a story about a woman that wakes up from a coma, sits up and sets off a bunch of alarms and she wanted to know what kind of alarms and monitors the woman would have attached to her that would be going off. That one wasn't so bad.

Specializes in OB.
How does anyone else handle this? I have a husband and three kids. Two of the kids are older teens, the baby is 2.5. Baby is sick right now and is one of those who pukes whenever she gets sick with anything. How come, when this tiny morsel of humanity throws up, Dad and Bro and Sis freeze and forget how to do anything except yell, "She's throwing up!!" No matter where I am in this house I have to come running to clean things up. How do the rest of you handle this with your families?

honestly, I don't think its a nurse thing, more of a mom thing. It is just expected that you will deal with it. One time - 3 am, my son threw up all over the kitchen floor, and I mean ALL over. I woke my husband up to help, cuz son was still blowing all over the place, and he actually- no kidding- walked in, handed my 8 year old a wash cloth, stepped around the puke and went and laid down on the couch. This was well before my entrance into anything medically related.

This really has me laughing!!:chuckle :chuckle Also brings back a lot of memories!! Yep, even before I went into nursing, I was the official puke cleaner.

One time my son, his wife, and little girl were over to visit - granddaughter tells me she doesn't feel good then proceeds to puke on the table - her mother ran for the bathroom and threw up, my son threw up in the kitchen sink. :uhoh3: :uhoh3:

Now I seem to be considered the neighborhood nurse - the neighbor kids come over to have me look at various wounds.

I feel for you. And I do agree its called parenthood. Friday my 4 year old daughter got in bed with us and promptly proceeded to throw up everywhere....of course she passed two perfectly good bathrooms on the way to my bed. Not to mention we have the only bed in the house without a waterproof protector.....For all of you with older kids, do they ever stop coming to throw up on you?? :-)

No kids will never stop going to you when they are sick. I'm 30 yrs old and still want my mom when I'm really sick. (Even though I ahven't puked on her in years). She know what to do and how to do it to make me feel better.

I'm now a mom of 2 boys and even though I'm not "fun and cool like dad", I'm the one they come running to when they are sick.

Erin

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
How does anyone else handle this? I have a husband and three kids. Two of the kids are older teens, the baby is 2.5. Baby is sick right now and is one of those who pukes whenever she gets sick with anything. How come, when this tiny morsel of humanity throws up, Dad and Bro and Sis freeze and forget how to do anything except yell, "She's throwing up!!" No matter where I am in this house I have to come running to clean things up. How do the rest of you handle this with your families?
I don't know many teenagers that would be eager to clean up the babe's vomit,honey.That's mom and dad's job .My son won't even pick up a furball.... In your case If dad refuses to help I think he'd find a paper plate full of it on the seat of his favorite chair...
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