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You know that feeling you get when you’re at work for 10 minutes and you get the dreaded phone call from daycare – your child is too sick to be here – that phone call.
Then you get that feeling in your tummy, the knots of anxiety because you have to tell your boss AGAIN that you have to leave work for the kids. You know that the boss isn’t happy with you already because you always leave to get the kids from daycare.
Thank goodness in Canada there are laws to protect us from getting fired due to sick children, but not every place in the world is like this. We are so lucky. But it does not leave me in better place anxiety wise. How can I be happy to work when I’m anxious about my “status” at work.
But on the other hand, you’re so worried about your poor little one who needs a hug and kisses immediately to feel just a little bit better so you run away from work with all sorts of mixed feelings.
I mean we are human, not robots.. we love our kids and we need to work, the struggle is REAL.
Honestly, sometimes I wonder, are we the only struggling family that has the little people that are ALWAYS SICK?
For example, a few weeks back…
I had an inkling, that my son was not feeling super well. He is 4 years old and he told me he was feeling fine. So off to daycare he went. I told my husband to be on alert as we can get a phone call at any point in time and it was his turn to be on sick duty.
Low and behold, the phone call came. Daddy picked up the sick monkey from daycare and off they went to cuddle at home.
The next day, the same little monkey was still sick, but so was the dad. So they stayed home together again.
However, I have 2 monkeys and this time, the second monkey got sick at dayhome too! So I pick up and drop off the second little monkey to sit at home with daddy and go back to work.
This continues for 3 more days! That’s the entire week, all gone for a sick family of monkeys. As my office was well aware that my husband took the hit at work this week, I was on sick duty the following week, crossing my fingers it doesn’t come to that.
But it did, it came to that.
We battled eye infections, ear infections and the flu in each kid for the next 2 weeks.
That’s right, 3 weeks off work between my husband and me. Honestly, I thought I was going to lose my job!
How do you cope? The loss of wages when you leave work or call in sick? The loss of trust in you from your employer because you know they know that you are never guaranteed to be at work, its a gamble. And then you wonder why your boss would take a chance on giving you any of the desirable projects/tasks in the office because of your “flakiness”.
On the other hand, the kids… the kids who are sick. The kids who need you more than ever because honestly, who knows better than mommy what foods will make them feel better and which medicine to give and which blanket is the absolute best for cuddling on the couch. The guilt you feel that you’re even thinking about the office when you know your children need you more is overwhelming.
Do you see where the anxiety portion kicks in? It’s like being torn in a million different directions to the point where you just don’t really know what to do.
So as a working momma bear with 2 little monkeys in daycare full time, the only thing I CAN do…
Is keep on keeping on.
That’s it. That’s the best I got. Because honestly, life is not easy. The struggles are real and the only thing to do is keep going forward.
