Bad Mommy Moment

Oh, the working mom guilt is putting in some overtime lately.

This year Jena realized that most of her friends don't go to school in the Summer. She also hates school (ie. she's bored, and is also ready to drop the mandatory nap). So we've tried to give her some "fun days" this Summer, before she starts Kindergarten in a few weeks and really has to be there every day.

Combine her fun days with several bouts of illness, and she's missed quite a bit of preschool over the past month. Much to her delight.

She also has figured out that if she's really sick, we will keep her home.

So guess who tries to convince me every morning that she's sick? Oh yes. It starts as young as four. It really does.

The other day I stayed home, sick with a stomach bug. Since I didn't feel up to driving, I just kept her home with me. The next day I felt much better, so proceeded to get both of us ready for work / school.

Cue the whining. But I'm siiiiiiiiick! I have a cough! (she did indeed have a very mild cough). Told her too bad, she's still going to school.

About a half an hour before we were to leave, she started telling me her tummy was "really warm", those being her words for nauseaus. I rolled my eyes and told her she was still going to school.

She seemed to realize it was a losing battle, but insisted she really was sick, and told me she'd do her best to not be around the other kids, but it was really hard at school.

{{ sigh }} okay. Fine. Whatever.

As a little background to the next part of the story, my office has an open office layout. So every morning as I walk in, I turn my phone to vibrate, because otherwise if it goes off approximately 75 people will hear it ring. It's a common courtesy.

That particular day I had lunch scheduled with a couple of co-workers. Something that happens maybe once every 3 - 4 months.

When I returned to my desk, I noticed I had 5 new voicemails. Weird. Checked my cell phone, which I had forgotten to turn back up when I left for lunch. Also 5 new voicemails. This cannot be good.

Scrolled thru the missed call list.

Preschool.
Preschool.
Jason.
Preschool.
Jason.

Crap.

Jena had gotten sick at school. Twice. They had been trying to get in touch with me for two hours. First call came in probably as I was walking out the door. Last call was  right about the time I would be walking back in.

They had finally gotten in touch with Jason, who was finishing up a job for his business, had to drive home to drop off his work van, drive to my work to pick up the car seat, then pick up Jena.

Cue working mom guilt.

I cannot believe the one time my child gets sick at school is the one time I forget to turn up my phone. And while she's sitting in the office sick, I'm enjoying a great lunch with my co-workers.

I. Felt. Awful.

Still kinda do.

After all, she told me that morning her tummy was warm, and I didn't believe her. And then she does get sick, and I'm not there to pick her up.

Bad mommy moment.

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There is one thing that makes me feel a tiny bit not-so-bad about the whole thing.

Ends up they didn't call after the first time she threw up. They thought it was a fluke. If they had called right then, I would have been sitting at my desk and could have been there in five minutes.

But instead they waited until she threw up twice before determining that it was a "real" illness.

While it makes me feel a tiny bit less guilty about the whole thing, it also frustrates me. Why? Because Jena has never gotten sick at school before. Ever. There is absolutely no reason to think that her throwing up is not "real". Because I just told the teacher & director last week how she had missed school because she ahd been fighting several different virus (viri?) over the past few weeks, so they knew she had been sick in the recent past. Because Jena (and I) have had a record number of illnesses this year. Different viri (viruses?), etc. I've been pretty convinced most, if not all, of them stemmed from preschool. And what do you expect? So for at least an hour after throwing up, they kept her in the classroom with all the other kids in close proximity. That's an extra hour to be spreading germs. And if you have a preschooler, you know just how easy that is. Does this make anyone else want to do a little

:: head desk ::
???

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Anyway, that's my working-mom-guilt combined with preschool-frustrations post.

Any other working moms got some guilt to share? or maybe some preschool frustrations?

As always, thanks for checking in!