Why should momma take a nap?

Do you remember the days your mom fell sick when you were a child and how much you hated it? Not having mom go around the house, doing the usual stuff, cooking up delicacies and i nothing else screaming at you for having entered the tidied drawing room with muddy shoes from the park? My first recollection of seeing mom sick was in my 6th grade. Mom was bed-ridden for a good 3-4 months from diagnosis that went wrong for typhoid. One thing led to another and before we knew she was sick for a good part of the year with medication ranging from common flu to malaria to para-typhoid. I was all of 10 years and my brother, 4 years younger than I, rushed mom to a hospital for IV as Dad was away at work. It's been 20 years since and she has never been in the pink of health. Seeing parents' fall sick is depressing for kids even if it were so much as a head ache.

Lil' General is too young right now to appreciate the difference between good health and sickness. All he cares about is his mom to keep jumping around the house, be at his beck and call all times of the day and most importantly not nap while he is awake. It has been a struggle to match my schedule with his this past year. The number of naps gradually went down from three to two and two to one now. He has been on a single nap routine for over two months now. The most challenging was the two-nap period when he slept at odd times - morning (10:30 a.m. - noon) and late evening (3:30 - 5:30 p.m.) - giving little room for me to rest. When I would want to rest for 30 minutes post lunch, he would be all over me jumping on my tummy, pulling my hair or plain screaming. I was so glad that phase was over when he got accustomed to the single-nap-in-afternoon routine. A few days back, he got up unusually early one morning and decided to nap mid-morning which meant the ordeal of dealing with him in the afternoon was daunting. I usually don't nap for more than 15 minutes in afternoons anymore unless I'm sick. That afternoon, I was pretty much under the weather and crashed on the couch after lunch. My dear toddler son very lovingly came up to me and opened my shut eyelids to scare the hell out of me. He quickly followed it up with every body part - parting my lips, jumping on the tummy, and screaming "momma, momma" and stuffing every available toy on my face. Not amusing in the least that I gave up finally to go play with him. The only way I could associate this behavior was how we as grown up kids felt towards sick parents.