Friday, July 07, 2006

Tip to feel good about being a traveling/working/busy mom

When Harry was an infant, traveling for work was not as hard. In fact, it was nice to be able to relax for a night before rushing home. I have been hoping when he is older he will understand and maybe even appreciate my travel. I figure our phone calls will be more productive, he can fax me his homework to review, I can leave him notes in his backpack...But 2 is hard. At 2, he just wants Mommy to be home. Actually, he wants Mommy to take him to the beach. (I want to go to the beach too!) So, feeling guilty (and a bit lazy) and not wanting to catch a 6 AM flight to Atlanta, I sat down at Harry's desk and picked up a crayon and wrote him a letter. The extent was "Good Morning, Harry! Love, Mommy!" It included pawprints, happy faces and flowers. I am told after finally finding it on the floor in front of him, he went and wrote his own response to me (across the front of the letter of course!). I can't wait to see it. And if the letter didn't serve the full purpose of letting him know I was thinking about him, at least it was a distraction!

Oh- and running 4 miles on the treadmill helped me sweat out some guilt too!

4 comments:

Kimberly said...

So much for feeling good. Harry broke his femur while I was in Atlanta. He's in a full body cast.

Kimberly said...

Thanks Teri. Little Harry is doing well...but I am likely losing my job over this. Though not being fired (where I could collect unemployment at least). The HR department at my company have been true asses. They have granted me a 2 week leave without pay. Thanks. I emailed the CEO and he is looking into it. I work in Clinical Research, and it is a competetive industry. Companies need to be family freindly, whether in the day to day or in the extreme cases. Maybe this is my new cause!

Caitlin Adams said...

Sorry to hear about work -- how nasty of them! This is a huge issue in our country -- so little is family friendly (especially in big business). We all feel stress about our choices as mothers -- but we are all doing our best no matter what the choices. I am coming to think it is more the culture's fault than ours that there are "mommy wars" and stresses about which "side" we each take.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kimberly, Would love to send you some goodies to help you feel better. I work at home and love the time with my kids while earning an income. I totally understand how you feel as it happened to a girlfriend of mine as well. I hope Harry is doing well and your family isn't feeling too much pressure. Stacy