Julie Helen: Sometimes, a mum has to get tough!

WELL, it finally happened. We had an incident with the Irish institution that is Sudocrem!

I’m quite impressed that we escaped so long. In fact, at the ripe old age of three- and-a-half, I thought that Ricky might be beyond the lure of the white, sticky elixir of the fixer of any skin ailment an Irish Mammy could think of. Yet here we are.

Let me set the scene; we had been up three times during the night before, at 1am, 3am and 5am - nicely spaced intervals of just about an hour when all was said and done. The small man was coughing and even with vapour rub, a vaporiser, calpol and an inhaler, he kept becoming uncomfortable and needing to sit in my arms.

By morning, he was fine and I was bleary-eyed, to say the least. In the moments he drifted to sleep, I couldn’t help just sitting at his side that bit longer just to make sure he was okay. There is nothing worse as a mother than not being able to ease his pain, especially when he cries “Mommy” in desperation - as if, surely to goodness, if anyone could fix it, I, with the high title of Mommy could!

Our little boy seems to get croup every now and then. It is my least favourite thing in the world. The night-time seems to be when he gets caught, and usually during the winter, so I was a bit perplexed when it appeared in midsummer.

Then I thought a bit more. He had been picking mushrooms in the field with his grandad Tim, and chasing grasshoppers in long grass! He adores being in the fields and they have many fascinating nature adventures I love hearing about. He might have been irritated by so much pollen in the rich grass. Sorry to tell you, Ricky, you’ll need to get used to that! With farming in your blood at all sides, there’s just no escaping grass!

Anyway, the next afternoon, we were having a nice relaxing time. Ricky was watching TV on the couch and I was sitting at the table, drinking copious amounts of tea to try and stay awake. Ricky had his back to me but made appropriate noises when I asked questions.

Tim came along to see if he wanted to go for the cows with him, only to notice Sudocrem smeared on three cushions of the black leather couch. He promptly withdrew his invitation and left without any fuss to get the cows all by himself.

Ricky and I set about the clean-up as I reacted in an aghast fashion that he would do something so silly! He wasn’t at all bothered until he realised that Tim had actually, really and truly gone without him and then the world ended, with tears bigger than I’ve ever seen. Disappointing Tim or Granny is a huge deal and he hates it!

We discussed how misguided Ricky was in his actions with the Sudocrem and we rehearsed a short but meaningful apology so Ricky could protect future adventures with his grandad!

On Tim’s return, Ricky danced nervously from foot to foot and spat out: “I’m sorry for messing with the Sudocrem and won’t do it again”. He needed a bit of coaching to stand firm and look his hero in the eye, even after a mistake.

Tim often delights in telling a story of how it took me hours to apologise once when I was 3, after throwing a shoe at someone’s head! I’m glad Ricky is smarter so he could go farming the next day!