Mike's dad blog: Who gets sick more?

CLEVELAND - Sept. 1 marks 8-months-old for Mason and in that time most of our major life changes have become normal to my wife and me, but one change sticks out as a surprise: we get sick more than ever.

We get up on the weekend with Mason at 6:30 a.m. and haven’t had a night out alone for months--all that was expected but having colds and general sickness multiple times is something we didn’t expect.

I have been sick five or six  times this year; ask my boss, I was out of my allotted sick days in July. I haven’t been sick five or six times total in the last decade.

I knew babies get sick and expected those times to be challenging, but never did I expect to contract all the little goodies that Mason had to offer.

When Mason was born we washed our hands at every turn and asked everyone who came to see him to do the same. Over time, the obsessive hand washing has relaxed, maybe that’s why we get sick so often. That, or kids are filthy germ magnets. I’ll go with kids being  filthy germ magnets. This revelation shouldn’t have been a surprise, but here I am with a sore throat in August.

For all you expectant and new parents, remember when the little one starts to get a runny nose or act a little sluggish, you're next and that 8-month-old baby isn’t going to take care of you as you took care of them.

I know I vowed not to complain or focus on the negative and I don’t think that this is a complaint. It’s just a tale of surprise that a 28-year-old immune system can’t handle what an 8-month-old child can throw at it.

My mom always told me that I had a very light case of the chicken pox so when Mason starts with that mess I’m going into quarantine until he’s better.