M* and her son are lucky that she can afford to be with his child all day, although there is a high price to pay, not in money, for that luxury.
Other families do not have such luxury, and the result is a very sad sight of children lying in their beds with indescribable saddened faces, on their own. I imagine their parents will be stuck in difficult jobs where days off are simply not an option, and deciding that the ill child should be a priority, leaving the job for a day and hoping that the job centre ‘Plus’ will not consider that they made themselves unemployed, is a risk that they simply can’t afford. Or stuck in a rented flat that is already at risk, or simply with a few other children to feed too.
A visit arrives in the evening and it reminds me of something I said a few weeks ago, about the breath of fresh air that a new arrival is to a stuffed room. This time I am in the visited side and it does cheer the atmosphere.
