Solo Mother

Snow day paranoia

by christina on February 13th, 2007

I was up and out of bed before the alarm went off this morning, tearing open the blinds even before I could unstick my poor, sleepy eyes. was there snow on the ground? Please…

YES! the alley behind my house was clear. What, you ask, is SoloMother such a scrooge that she reveled in a distinct lack of whiteness on Mother Nature’s part? The answer, in my newfound 8 - 5ness is a resounding, yes. Snow, you see, makes me paranoid.

What will they think at the office, I wonder, if I have to call in and say my kid’s school is closed, so I have to stay home? Will they really understand? Is it really okay? Or am I condemning myself to the double dead end single mommy track? Even if it’s not true, it’s how I feel. I scramble to get to work on time, when they announce that school will open two hours late. I call my friends, desperate to find someone who can entertain him for a few hours, then drop him off at school. When the school closed the pre-K program last Friday to do an open house, I was on my knees thanking the powers that be who saw fit to bring my mother back from her vacation just in time to meet me at the office, kid in tow, to do the great Ransom of Red Chief exchange. But today, I wasn’t so lucky. There was no after-care program, and my mother was out in Fredericksburg. I left work early. Even though I got an e-mail on the Treo not fifteen minutes later, announcing that the front desk wasa closing and anyone who chose to stay at work had to prove they could get home safely, I felt like I’d somehow… done something wrong.

But I think the guilt will work in their favor. I’ll go nuts trying to find a way to get to work. I’ll get creative, cause I don’t have the luxury of a partner with whom to trade kid duties. I’ll go the extra mile.

I’ll ask my folks to babysit on Friday night and come in on Saturday, again.

Maybe it will snow.

Snowmen by showbizsuperstar on flickr

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POSTED IN: career, childcare, mother's guilt, work