Dear Kid,

It’s hard when your college kid is sick.

Let me back up. It’s hard when your kid is in college. But it’s even harder when said child isn’t healthy.

When you’re home, I can baby you for a day, refill your glass with apple juice, tuck blankets around you, serve you chicken soup, and tell you not to worry about your homework—just get some sleep. After 24 hours, I have generally ruled out most Major Illnesses and then nudge you back to health and activity. Don’t all mothers say, “I understand you have a cold. Here’s a tissue. Get your homework done and take out the garbage.”?

But when you’re at college, I can’t do much. I can’t kiss your forehead to see if you have a fever (forehead kissing is much more accurate than a thermometer or “Mom, I’m fine”), I can’t insist you drink more (let’s face it—“insisting” by text only goes so far), and I can’t check on you whenever I want to make sure you’re still breathing.

I can’t do the check-on-you-mom-thing. I can’t do the take-care-of-you-mom-thing. I can do the put-money-in-your-account-to-pay-for-antibiotics-and-Nyquil-thing but that’s more of a banking function than a mom function.

Which leaves the fretting-mom-thing and the texting-mom-thing neither of which are as effective as chicken soup.

It’s very hard to be a mom when your college kid is sick.

Hope you’re feeling better, kiddo.

Love, Mom