Wednesday Feb 16, 2022 was a typical packed day of meetings, a webinar and a podcast recording or two. That as before the typical day became a disaster.
My 14 year old son’s school called my ex and told her that our son was at the nurse’s office and needed to go to the hospital ER. My ex is on a business trip out of town.
NIGHTMARE!
So, the lists started to build in my head… what do I do first? Kids? Dog? Work?
I took it on faith that my son, who was in danger was surrounded by people taking care of him. The youngest? I needed to pick him up from school. Oldest kid was with my middle son at the nurse’s office, so they were ok.
The dog? Easiest… goes to the crate.
Work? Nightmare.
- Missed an interview… will reschedule it. He’s my friend anyway, I hope he will understand.
- Webinar at 2? UGH! So many people were waiting for my presentation. GUILT!
- Client meetings? My team has them. They are awesome.
- Podcast at 3? We will have to reschedule. I hope they will understand.
As I am driving to the hospital… guilt about the meetings, webinar and podcast. I joined the client call as much as I could. Maybe it was a distraction from the fact that my kid was on his way to the hospital. Whatever. GUILT.
Then when I got to the hospital, they couldn’t find my son at the ER. Did I get wrong hospital? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME AND MY PRIORITIES? Then, they found him. One person is allowed with the patient at a time. So, they had my oldest leave so I could be with him. Gave them a big hug before I went in.
Left my backpack with all of my work, computer and other stuff in the lobby. GUILT. I wasn’t working.
The good news was my son is fine. He was released an hour (or two) later. The damage was done. It took much of the night and the next day to fix the issues that were created to the work day. GUILT.
Do I apologize? No? Then why do I feel GUILT.