Ahhhh… The Dreaded Man Flu

Tis the season…..

 

— No, not the season for big-bellied men dressed in red.

— Not the season for decorations and yuletide (what the hell is yuletide anyway??)

— Not even the season of merriment & gift giving.

 

It’s the season of the cold.  Or the flu.  Or sniffling, sneezing coughing, aching, stuff head, fever….. oh, wait… I just started to sound like a commercial……

 

Anyhow, if you’re unlucky (like many women) and happen to have a man in your life.  You might just be entering into the season of the Man Flu or Man Cold.  Both of which are far worse, more crippling, and just plain downright more awful than any “normal” cold or flu.

 

I’ve received calls from friends recently screaming “man down, man down”.   And, for a moment I’m confused and I start to duck for cover underneath my coffee table, and then I remember that nearly everyone I know is sick.  And, as this dreaded cold makes it’s rounds, I realize that their misfortune could easily be my misfortune.  As it’s only a matter of time before my own dear hubby succumbs to the death-bed-whining that could only indicate one thing:  He’s come down with a Man Cold.

 

It happens just about every year around this time.. I’ve posted before about not accepting the “in sickness” part of my marriage vows.  And, I feel for every women out there who must deal with their own version of this illness.  I would venture a guess though that there’s little variation all over the globe.  As it seems no man is immune.  That biologically speaking, bacteria somehow invades a man’s body worse than a woman’s.  That somehow a man’s immune system is weaker (yes men – I said you are weaker) than a woman’s.    It’s at this moment that they realize how much they need us.  Or at least how much they want to be coddled and waited on.  And, if we’re not performing these motherly, ahem.. wifely? duties up to par,   they revert back to whiny little boys.

 

Just this past week my brother-in-law posted this status update on Facebook:  “Home with the flu.. no visitors but will happily use what’s left of my strength to open the door for any girls that are available to pamper me and help me through this tough time”

 

(yes, he and my dear hubby are cut from the same cloth….. I’m a damn lucky girl that I have 2 of them in my life…… this is also the same brother that instigated the “floating buoys” in my pool….)

 

Anyhow, not only do they whine and act like sick children in the privacy of their own home, but it seems that are perfectly ok putting it out there in the universe that they are “dying” and need immediate care.  Have You No Shame??!!

 

To bring this point home, I recently stumbled on this video and I just had to share.

 

 

It’s a testimony to the male ‘pack mentality’.  If they all act like this when they are sick, then they will all support each other, and none of them will have any qualms about milking every last ounce of sympathy from anyone, anywhere, who will listen.

 

Ladies… take a stand.  Next time a Man Cold enters your home, cut to the chase and hand the man a phone just in case  he needs to dial an emergency #  (and then just hope that it’s a female EMT who answers his call!)