Gratitude

Yesterday, I got a call from Nathan's school telling me he was throwing up and could I please come get him right away.

My first thought was gratitude.

I'm no Pollyanna and cleaning up vomit is not a fun pastime, but I'm still grateful.

I'm grateful that I have a job where I can work from home without trouble.  I'm grateful that my bosses and fellow employees are understanding and have no issue with me putting family first.

I'm grateful I didn't have to choose between a day's income and taking care of my son.

Not everyone gets that kind of flexibility in their occupation.

I used to work for the government and for the most part, I really enjoyed it.  I liked the people I worked with and the job had its interesting points.  I walked away from it a year ago (although I only recently gave in my official notice) because it didn't work with my family.

A lot of people thought I was foolish to do it.  With the government, I had stable employment, benefits, a pension plan.  I could vary my hours as I needed, meaning I could upscale to full-time work if something happened to Dave's job, giving us a very real safety net.  The department I worked for was incredibly flexible, doing everything they could to adapt to what I needed.  And I'm grateful for their efforts.

But I still had to be in their office for a set number of hours each work day.  No fault to them.  I don't even want to think about the security nightmare otherwise. 

Today I was able to sit and rub my five year old's back while he threw up and cuddle him while he sipped water.  Being sick is bad enough but I remember how terrifying the loss of control was with a stomach bug when I was a child.  Today, I made his experience a little less frightening.  I was able to make Jello while he slept, so he had something to eat which wouldn't irritate his stomach too much.

And I did it all while still getting my work-for-pay done.  Slower than usual, to be sure.  But still done.  I'm proud of that.  I didn't have to sacrifice either my pride in my work or my responsibility to my family.  For a little while, I did get to have it all.

That's worth sticking in the Happy Jar.