Last Monday I was 15 minutes into a major meeting when I noticed on my Blackberry that I had a voicemail from my daughters’ daycare. My heart sank. I was sitting four rows back from my company’s CEO and was surrounded by executives.
As discreetly as possible, I texted both my husband and my daughters’ daycare center to let them know that I was unable to call back and to please let me know if there was an emergency.
Several minutes went by and I began to panic. No one was emailing me back. Maybe what happened was so terrifying that they didn’t want to explain over email. If only I could listen to my voicemail then I would know what the call was about! I watched each passing minute on my Blackberry and began to worry “what if one of my daughters was in an ambulance and on her way to the emergency room?”
After 20 minutes, I couldn’t take the anxiety any longer. I pulled my hair over the side of my face, and, as gracefully as possible, listened to my voicemail.
Turns out my 8-month old had another suspected case of pink eye. In fact, the daycare center left painstaking detail about how green liquid was oozing from her right eye.
How was that possible? I had just dropped her off two hours prior and her eyes were fine.
Then it dawned on me that this was her third case of pink eye in 3 weeks. She had just finished her pink eye antibiotics last Wednesday!
Just then, I received a text from my husband. He was on his way to pick her up from school, take her to the doctor, and would work from home the rest of the day.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Although I felt a ping of guilt for not being with my baby and taking her to the doctor myself, I was relieved that I didn’t need to explain to anyone why I needed to miss work for pink eye. Again.
Now if only I could TiVo this meeting and figure out what the heck the CEO had just spent the past 20 minutes talking about…
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Warning: Unsolicited Advice Could Be Construed From This Message:
I could change minor details of your story and pretty much make it my story during my Accenture days. Change CEO to Senior Executive or Client Vice President… However, the story was the same: I was feeling GUILTY about pulling away from work to take care of my family, feeling GUILTY for relying on my husband a lot, feeling GUILTY that my children were not getting enough of me, etc. For ME PERSONALLY I found that a huge sense of comfort came from leaving Accenture and going into a position where everyone a) knew I had a family b) knew that I would prioritize my family when necessary and c) had large families of their own IN WHICH THEY WERE INVOLVED (read: these daddies do not check out on Monday AM and back in on Friday evening). For me, it made all the difference in the world. So, to the working mommies out there: it is possible to have a less guilty working environment if you’re working for the right company… The guilt, of course, NEVER goes away. But, for me, it was really reduced when I could stop saying “I’m going to a client meeting” when I’m really going to a 12 month check up!
I couldn’t agree more with you, Melissa!