I got pulled out of a meeting recently with
the note from my secretary every working mom dreads. "Call Michael's
school ASAP. He is sick." They had called my cell phone, which I left
stupidly on my desk, and my work phone, and luckily called my
secretary's number which is on my voice mail. I ran out of the
meeting, and before I even called the school, started packing up my
office. Laptop, check, work to bring home, check.
"Michael has a cold and is really whiney. I think you should get him," the school secretary told me.
So
I did. Except when I got there he was smiling and happy and was acting
like nothing was the matter. He wanted to stay at school for lunch.
He wanted me to sit with him. He wanted me to listen to the book the
teacher was reading. A cold? I got called out of work for a cold?
Like any good lawyer would I did my research when I got home. I looked
through the preschool handbook. A child needed to be picked up at
school for a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. Says nothing about a cold.
Says nothing about whining. He's three. Aren't all three year olds
whiney?
Gone
are the days where preschool is just something fun for kids to do for a
few hours. For a lot of moms, hey, I would argue for most moms,
preschool is also daycare. To call them out of work for no reason
disrupts so many lives. Luckily I was not in a trial and my job is
flexible, but still.
But what was I going to do? Refuse to pick
him up? Leave when I saw that he was perfectly fine? I even kept him
home the following day because it was easier to just work from home
rather than send him to school to get called out again.
And I've learned my lesson to take my cell phone into meetings.
