What Parenting Sober Is Teaching Me About The Deeper Meaning of Comfort
A new year’s lesson on self-care in sobriety
“Mommy, I don’t feel good.”
My daughter sat down on the arm of the couch next to me with wet eyes and shaky lips. I smoothed her dark hair behind her ear and whispered soft questions. Do you feel sick? Are you not having fun? Did someone say something to you that you didn’t like?
She said she wasn’t sure as she pressed her body into mine and the color drained from her face.
I took her hand and we wove our way through party guests to a small bathroom behind the kitchen. I opened the door and she immediately slid to the floor. “I might be sick.”
I sat next to her and held her hand. She seemed confused, her breath was shallow and jerky. My mind raced to the day’s menu of meals and snacks trying to find the culprit. Was it the breakfast oatmeal? The burrito for lunch? Did she have any food since we got to the party? Except for normal, baby spit-up, somehow she had dodged the yearly flu and had only thrown up once or twice in her 11 years.
I cradled her head on my lap and stared at the gold diamond pattern on the linoleum floor. The New Year’s Eve party was just getting started and I could hear hopeful voices dance around the…
