Over the years, as parents we have done some pretty stupid things.
But we have also come up with some pretty damn good brilliant ideas too.
Thank goodness for the white leather couch we put at my husband’s office is all I can say.
This couch has saved us time, our careers, our souls. It has been there thick and thin for our children.
Our kids have watched DVD players on it, Netflix, drank ginger ale on it and thrown up on it. They have dozed on it, snored on it and had fevers on it.
And doubly thank goodness for the team of sweet “nurses” at my husband office (aka his secretaries), who take care of those little people on the couch when they need something and my husband is in the conference room with clients (aka always).
My Protector and I came up with this brilliant idea after we had three kids and realized that if we were ever going to be able to go to work on a regular basis we needed to have back up plans if the kids were sick. Knock on wood my kids have probably throughout their lifetimes been sick at least 2/3 less than most people’s kids for some reason, but still there always seem to be someone with a fever, a sore tummy, a hurt foot, an ear infection or a ruptured appendix or hernia every now and them. And these things always seems to happen when we cannot work from home because we have “important meetings” (aka as every single day of our lives).
So for the first few years of having kids we did it the stressful way. One of us took day off (me) or we shared the shift (mine always seemed to be the double shift) and tried to work from home. Then we got smarter and had back up sitters who we pay double to come at last minute. But who really feels like calling someone at 4am and asking them to come over? It’s just not normal.
Then when we renovated the house and my husband ventured out on his own at work and the Associate lawyer who shared office space with him left. We decided that we should rent a van and move 2 of our nice leather couches and coffee tables to make a room for our potentially sick children for many years to come.
They go there if they are not too sick. If they are throwing up they don’t get to go there usually. Often my husband’s prior receptionist would be asked to come home and stay with them. She used to call this “a day at head office. And before my husband hires anyone he lets them know that this is part of the contract! Mine and his time are reserved for when we are sick ourselves (no I don’t get to go use the couch!) or when are kids are really sick and need us and a sitter just won’t do.
The kids like it there as they get to watch movies and usually by mid-afternoon feel well enough to join my husband for a 50cent hot dog at Belle Province (yes I know it sounds like too much fun for sick kids, but we take what we can get for quality alone time with them right)!
And they get made a fuss over from all the nurses…and then they go home for a big long boring nap for hours and hours in the dark in their rooms when our schedules are freed up at the end of the day.
So as I dropped my sick daughter off today, I felt thankful for those white leather couches and grateful for them and what they have provided us over the years. It made me realize how creative and out of the box we have needed to become over the years to make it all somehow all work out and function properly.
When a woman at the school asked me the other day as she saw me dressed up in my crisp white button-down,my grey tweed suit and heels on my way to lead an important meeting at work-she said “How do you do this??? How do you possibly make it work with both of you with these types of careers with no too much built in flexibitility??”
And after a few moments of careful consideration; I told her it was because of a white leather couch at my husband’ office.
And that is the truth.
