There’s a certain sound that echoes through every household when a mum dares to get sick. It’s not the gentle clinking of a teacup beside her bed or the muffled hum of a family quietly carrying on. Oh no. It’s the sound of absolute chaos.

Because when Mum goes down, the whole operation collapses. The meal plans disintegrate, the laundry mounts an uprising, and the children, our precious little cherubs, sense weakness in the air like sharks catching the scent of blood.

The Great Mum Flu Phenomenon

You could be lying there, genuinely unwell, tissues up one nostril, panadol in one hand, and a hot water bottle balanced on your chest…and somehow, your family still behaves as though you’re on call.

They walk right past a perfectly capable, fully-functioning adult (hi, Dad ) and come directly into the sick zone to ask the hard-hitting questions of the day:

• “Mum, where’s my shoe?”
  
• “Mum, can you cut my toenails?”
  
• “Mum, he just farted on me!”
  

All while you’re lying there looking like an extra from The Walking Dead.

When the House Senses Weakness

It’s wild how quickly the entire system collapses. The dishes pile up, the school notes go missing, and Lego pieces magically appear all over the house…ready to cripple you at any given zombie-walk moment.

And the kids? They don’t just cope poorly, they thrive in the chaos. Suddenly they’re fighting over who breathed first, they’ve rediscovered the art of finger painting (on the wall), and they’ve decided today is the perfect day to make “potions” in the bathroom sink.

Meanwhile, your partner is standing in the hallway saying, “They were fine five minutes ago…”
Of course they were. Five minutes ago, I was upright.

Why Can’t Mum Just… Stop?

Because mums don’t get sick days.
There’s no HR department to call. No backup roster. No “out of office” that covers “out of life.”

Somewhere along the way, society decided that when a mother falls, she must still rise…just slightly slower, wearing a dressing gown, and carrying a handful (or brafull) of tissues.

But honestly? Enough.
Maybe what we need isn’t more resilience, it’s a movement.

Introducing: The Mum Healing Sanctuary™

Picture this: A quiet retreat where sick mums are sent away for recovery. Not in the “hospital” sense, but in the “nobody is allowed to ask you where their socks are” sense.

A place with endless soup, soft blankets, and zero interruptions.
The only sounds? Gentle waves, soft music, and other women softly whispering, “You’re doing amazing, sweetie.”

Meanwhile, back home, the rest of the household gets a hands-on crash course in logistics, emotional labour, and the fine art of finding things themselves.

We can call it:
“Operation Figure It Out.”

You’re Not Alone (Even If It Feels Like It)

If you’ve ever tried to “rest” while simultaneously answering snack requests and breaking up wrestling matches from bed please know, you’re not alone.

Every mum I know has experienced this exact fever-dream scenario. We all secretly laugh (and cry) about it because somehow it’s become our normal. But it shouldn’t be.

Mums don’t do degrees in family operations. We learn on the job, usually with a baby on one hip and a mental to-do list scrolling endlessly in our heads. But that doesn’t mean the load should default to us, especially when we’re sick.

So next time you feel yourself going under, remember this: you’re not lazy, you’re not failing, and you absolutely deserve to stop.
Even if the house does briefly descend into Lord of the Flies.

Maybe the real cure for mum flu isn’t antibiotics…it’s everyone else stepping up.

Until then, I’ll be in my so-called healing sanctuary…congested, contagious, and clinging to the hope those tiny footsteps walk the other way.