Thursday, June 19, 2008

Moms Never Get a Sick Day (But Dads Do!)

Over the borderline: My husband, Dave, and I came down with strep throat one day apart last week. He got it first and was so sick he had to take a day off from work. On that day, he laid on the couch watching TV, while I worked, then watched our child and brought him soup, sandwiches and popsicles at regular intervals.
The next day I got sick and Dave went back to work. I tried laying on the couch and ordering my 2-year-old son to bring me popsicles, but it didn't work out as good for me as it did for my husband. Moms never really get a sick day.
I had to alternate my TV watching with my very patient child, who was happy with half-hour intervals of "Bob the Builder," eating an entire box of fruit snacks, and running his train back and forth over my head for hours.
In between "Bob the Builder" shows, I caught up on episodes of "Snapped" -- the one great show on the Oxygen network.
Mostly the Oxygen network (for, like, women) has been a huge dissapointment, with stupid reruns of "Xena: Warrior Princess" and trashy original programming like "The Bad Girls Club." But "Snapped," now there is a show I can get behind.
The show retells true crime cases where women murder their husbands or lovers. The storyline is always the same: Beautiful, ruthless esthetician/nurse/stripper falls in love with rich, older casino boss/drug lord/doctor and begins a relationship. When said sugar daddy takes another lover or tries to cut her off financially, sugar baby does him in. Scorn, ruin and jailtime typically follow.
I'm a sucker for crime shows, especially cheesy, over-the-top ones like "Snapped." Part of the fun is wondering just what it was that put the girlfriends or wives over the edge. Was it infidelity? Abuse? Or was it something more subtle like too little help around the house, too many requests for popsicles? I had an entire sick day to think about it.
-- Elyssa AndrusThis story appeared in
The Daily Herald on page B1 on June 17, 2007.

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