Julie Helen: A birthday party cancelled not just once... but twice!

I THINK I am still holding my breath since the poor little four year old vomited in a restaurant. Yes, you read that correctly.

We were sitting happily, finishing our food, when Ricky started to cry, the kind of cry that pleads with me to help him. Then the noise of the room around us got louder for me, because I realised that I wouldn’t be able to help him fast enough. After crying, he tried to make his way to the toilet but got sick on the floor on his way. My heart went out to him, I wanted to scoop him up and just make it all better.

Three other mothers jumped up to try and help us and the restaurant staff were as good as they could be. 

The other mothers were so sympathetic, it had happened to all of them with their own young kids before. The staff reassured us it happens to kids, even though I could feel that they were understandably annoyed at the mess and disruption.

David took Ricky out to the car, away from everyone watching him. I gathered up our jackets and paid for our meal. As a person who walks with two walking sticks, my primary aim was not to slip and fall in the parcel my son had left on the floor moments before. Luckily, I escaped quickly, I could hear my heart beating in my ears.

I know we are good parents to Ricky. He has everything he needs and he is generally a very happy little man, I felt helpless. 

If I thought he was going to get sick in the restaurant, I would never have brought him in.

When he was younger, I made sure I had my wheelchair, so that if he needed to, he could be on my lap. He has become more independent over the last few months and I have needed the wheelchair less.

When he was so upset, I wished I could have fixed everything, and I knew that if I was in the same situation of feeling unwell myself, I probably wouldn’t have done much better than he did. All the rationale in the world didn’t take the mortification of the situation away. I just had to deal with it and move on. All three of us did the best we could at the time.

Ricky was gutted that we were going home instead of going shopping for party supplies which we had promised in our plan for the day. We had rescheduled his birthday party because he had a bad cough at the time and now a tummy bug was getting in the way too. We went home and cancelled the party.

Ricky wasn’t devastated, which told me he was feeling quite miserable in himself, so we cuddled up on the couch and reassured him that we can have the party again when he is feeling better.

Ricky is a Covid baby. I remember holding him when Leo Vradkar announced the first lockdown. Our little boy is used to plans being cancelled. The opportunity to see friends and cousins is a novelty and a rarity, rather than something we can do on a whim.

I’m glad to report, the noisy, energetic, tornado has returned and he is as right as rain again. I learned to seek out some travel sick bags and put them in my handbag, but I am not sure I would have been able to react fast enough, even if I had them. As Ricky grows, he’ll get better and better at dealing with things himself and we’ll support him along the way.