Green Mom: Calling for Back Up

I got sick this week — a stomach bug. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. with that tell tale queasy feeling and knew my family was in for a long day. I immediately went into the guest room to “sleep” but really what I was doing was planning. The following day was not a day that I work. My husband had can’t-miss meetings with out of town bosses. You know the kind; all-day meetings, team building dinners, meetings that are planned months in advance. Since I was supposed to be home with my son, we had no child care scheduled for that day; my husband couldn’t stay home, and our closest family member lives two hours away. Cue drop-in care at our child care center.

I am lucky enough to use a center that offers emergency drop-in care. I frantically called them as soon as they opened and explained our situation. Even though the person that does the scheduling was just walking in the door, she took a minute to review the classroom rosters and was able to accommodate my son, with longer hours than he’s normally at the center so my husband could still do drop off and pick up. I felt badly about inconveniencing the teachers and worried all day that I would get the dreaded phone call that he too was sick, but he ended up having his best day ever at child care — full of dancing, painting, and playing in the kitchen. It really does take a village to raise a child and my family was very lucky that our child care center was willing to be ours that day.