A pot of pretend sunscreen and an assertive two-year-old make up the at-home medical care team for Rianne Arendsen, who detailed her experience managing an illness while serving as the primary patient for her toddler in a published column for kekmama.nl.
Rianne Arendsen, a 35-year-old educational scientist, children’s yoga teacher, writer, and mother, described spending her days recovering from a headache on the couch while her husband joked about man-flu. Rather than relying on traditional adult medical care, the household sickness was managed by a two-year-old toddler working entirely ambulantly who took on the role of a nurse.
At-Home Consultations and Clinical Examinations
The toddler nurse began her professional duties immediately after the household woke up, stepping off a scale with a professional verdict of Kwart voor negen
while Arendsen brushed her teeth. During breakfast, the young nurse questioned Arendsen’s untouched food and recommended that she Dan moet je even in de auto naar buiten kijken
after learning the patient felt slightly nauseous.
Later in the afternoon, while Arendsen was dozing on the couch, the toddler climbed on top of her with the comment Ik zal je even insmeren.
Using a spice jar from her play kitchen as sunscreen, the toddler massaged the fictive cream into Arendsen’s sensitive skin, followed by a physical examination where she poked Arendsen’s left and right breasts and nodded toward her sister.
Concluding the House Calls
The consultations typically ended with the young nurse shifting the medical attention from Arendsen’s complaints to her own minor injuries, proudly showing a scraped knee and announcing, Kijk! M’n au is deraf!
Arendsen noted that receiving such care, attention, and advice happens not when the parent waits for it, but entirely when the child finds it convenient, reflecting a familiar pattern of parenting shared across her columns on kekmama.nl and Substack.
