You need a strong support system... For more reasons than you might realize.
This week I learned a few things:
#1 – No, you cannot have it all
#2 – Good help is priceless
#3 – Be prepared to be unprepared
My children love their grandparents. They love them so much that without fail, every Friday they ask to go to their house for the weekend. For the first few months of this new routine my husband and I couldn’t believe our luck! The two of us were hanging out like single people on the weekends; traveling, getting to the point that we have our own host at Foxwoods and the general debauchery that one would expect a childless couple would have. But alas, the shine wore off the penny and we truly missed hanging with the babies. The babies, by the way, are 6 and 7.
This past weekend we put our foot down and insisted, over much contesting by the babies, that they stay with us and we would provide the best weekend ever. We’d show those kids just how much fun we can be and that those grandparents have nothing on us!
Cut to me mocking the legal release that required my signature before we were admitted to enter the famous Davis Farmland Corn Maze. I mean really, a release for a CORN MAZE?
The first hour and a half of our excursion went swimmingly. We walked them around, got them hopped up on sugar and were patting ourselves on the back for outdoing those grandparents of theirs. Then, all of the sudden, my 7 year old fell off a rock wall. She fell a whopping 2 feet and started screaming.
I was instantly annoyed by the dramatics, and even slightly embarrassed, as we went on this adventure with our good friends and their children. Plus, I knew there was nothing seriously wrong because my husband was so calm and he speaks child, a language I am still having a hard time understanding.
We found the closest hospital, “just to be sure,” and my husband carried her into the ER.
After 2 hours in the waiting room, and my questioning why she was shaking (turns out that wasn’t shaking it was writhing in pain,) she had a spiral fracture in both the tibia and fibula. Put my name in for Mother of the Year. I’m sure to win.
The torture of that day goes on and on, to the tune of having to be transported to another hospital via ambulance because there was no orthopedic on call at the first hospital to a 7 year old on crutches. The fun just wouldn’t stop.
I’m happy to report she’s now in a wheelchair and going back to school Monday.
Here’s where the business lesson comes in: I’ve got two companies, employees, clients and deadlines. I can’t tell my customers, “Sorry! No magazine this month, my daughter has a broken leg.” Like dawn over marble head I realized that the headlines in magazines that proclaim, “Yes, you can have it all!” are lying. I cannot have it all. I cannot fulfill my duties as a business owner and give my daughter the full time care she required this week.
So, I did what any reasonable person would do. I called in the big guns. Her grandmother was at our house before we got home from the hospital.
Joke as I might, I really don’t know what I would do without this support. There was no way I could do what needed to be done for the business this week and take care of my daughter who was essentially immobile. I didn’t think making a 7 year old choose whether she wanted me to help her this week or make money so I could feed her was a great position to put her in, especially considering how sensitive I was when she fell in the first place.
Having good help around you as a business owner is priceless. Whether they are good employees, a good support system, good clients, or good vendors, make sure you’re surrounded.
I was recently quoted in a daily calendar, “You can have a deal with a good person go bad but you can never have a deal with a bad person go well.” Start collecting good people and make sure you are good to them in return!
Never in a million years would I think we’d exit a day of family fun with broken bones. This is where the third lesson I learned comes in. Prepare to be unprepared. I still feel unprepared for the next 16 weeks of caring for my daughter until she gets her cast off, but I’m thankful that this is all we have to worry about. Until next time………