Sick

It's amazing what one sick babysitter can do to a household with two working parents. Forget all the progress mankind has made with space travel, technology, medicine....when some one comes up with a solution that allows a dual-income family to regularly go to work with the comfort that kids will be picked up from school, safety transported, fed, and taken care of until one or both parents make it home, that's when I'll be impressed.

I have had 6 nannies in 6 years....some for very short stretches and some for longer. One left mid-week without giving notice to go back to her out of state boyfriend, leaving us high and dry. Another told a sob story about having to take care of an elderly sick parent in South America...but really left to get a boob job and liposuction and never bothered to come back. Another quit shortly after my young son redecorated our house by emptying a carton of eggs (OK...that one I get). Today, my husband and I have had to take off work to cover for our babysitter who is out sick. Yes, people get sick and I totally understand. But at least in my office when I get sick, there are other people to help out...I can still check my Blackberry and respond to emails, and check and respond to voice mail to handle any emergencies. But when a nanny gets sick....ugh. Which parent will have to make the sacrifice to stay home? Whose job is "less important?" Who can fall more behind at work? There are no good answers to these questions. After the "sick notification" our lives become a flurry of calendar checking and shuffling, apologetic phone calls, begging nearby relatives to drop everything to help and ultimately, in the end, one spouse making the sacrifice. "I'll do it this time...but next time, it's YOU!" Just thinking about it makes me sick. Definitely a "Cosmo-worthy" day.

But, we'll survive...continue to plug along each day waiting for that dreaded phone call or text that throws our household into a tizzy. In the meantime, I'm thinking of teaching my 10 year old how to drive...and perhaps cook. Just as a back up!