The other morning, Hungry Boy was sick. For a change in our house, it was nothing serious, but someone had to stay home with him. He couldn’t go to preschool, as was the usual plan that day.
Mr Penguin, who is the primary carer in our house, also does quite a lot of community work. Among other things, he chairs the Board of our local community centre. That morning, he had a Board meeting. So we had to choose. I chose to stay home with HungryBoy, until mid-morning, when his grandmother could come to the rescue.
I suspect that most people reading this blog would nod their head and think, “so what?” But it was a bit of a tricky decision for me. I’m the one who gets paid for my work. Ultimately, I’m keeping the family in a lifestyle where Mr Penguin can afford to do charity work for nothing. I also had meetings all morning (as usual). So I disrupted a few 0ther people’s day that morning.
But it is important that choices about people’s time isn’t just about money – whether you are being paid or not, if you’ve made a commitment, you should try and turn up. And Mr Penguin’s commitment was more important, that morning, than mine.
It’s a bit of a nightmare when the little darlings get sick, isn’t it? The other week Kiko had the flu, then I caught it and was so bad my husband had to take half a day off work and come home and take care of us. I felt so guilty because I was worried it would reflect badly on him that he’d left work early – they were doing something Very Important that week. On the other hand, it was such an utter relief to have him rescue us. Sometimes life just isn’t perfect but it works out OK!
I hope Hungry Boy is feeling better. There are some real nasties going around at the moment.
We’ve got a similar philosophy about the more important meeting wins in the case of kid sickness. It hurts sometimes, but I think you’re right to see it this way.