Our 8-year-old has been down and out the past couple days with some sort of stomach bug. Normally he’s wanting to go outside, play “super heroes,” or wrestle around with me and his brother. Not the past two days. He’s wanted no part of any of that.

In for a long couple of days

Between running to the bathroom to vomit, not eating or drinking much, he just wanted to lie down. The timing wasn’t the greatest as we were gone almost all of last week, so I got very little work done last week. And this week I’m working on a major redesign project for my website.

Plus our daughter had her first internship Monday, which my wife took her to, and on Tuesday my wife had the upcoming school year’s first meeting with our Classical Conversations homeschooling tutors.

All of that — playing catch up for work, starting a major project, while trying to nurse a sick child who couldn’t help but make multiple trips to the bathroom could have been a recipe for disaster. But fortunately it wasn’t.

Help from an unexpected place

My friends at Netflix came to the rescue. Yes, I said Netflix. With the vast selection of movies and cartoon episodes (specifically super hero cartoons) to watch, my son was enjoying himself as much as he possibly could under the circumstances. The last two days were all his choice. He got to choose the episode, the movie, and watch what he wanted pretty much when he wanted.

With two siblings to share screen choices with and the limited amount of time we allow our kids to watch/play screens that rarely happens. I’m sure he would have rather been outside jumping on the trampoline, playing basketball, or inside wrestling around. But unlimited Netflix was a pretty good consolation prize.

All our family needs

That is one thing I love about Netflix. Pretty much what you want to watch is available, and it’s available on-demand. We’ve long ago cut the cable TV cord, and with Neflix I doubt we’ll ever go back.

Neflix helped me stay productive, and helped my son stay entertained while down and out from the stomach bug. And now you know how a dad handles staying home with a sick kid…at least this dad.

What do you do when you are staying home with your kid(s) when they are sick?

This post is part of a partnership I have with Netflix. I am part of the Netflix Stream Team, and will be sharing  posts throughout the year to inspire family time and conversations around the TV, tablet, and mobile devices.

photo credit: Rafael Venegas via photopin