Working Mom Problems: Middle of the Day School Events

Working Mom Problems

I kept my son out of school today. He wasn’t sick.  He didn’t ask to stay home. In fact, he just turned four and loves spending time there with his sweet little playmates.  So, why did I do it? Because the school had yet another event in the middle of the work day. I’d love to be there for each and every activity in each of my children’s classrooms, but I have already taken many days off this year for events at school. For this one, I simply couldn’t do it. There was a meeting that I would have moved if I could, but I couldn’t and as important as being there for all these moments is, it’s also important that I do a good job at my career. We need to put food on the table, but beyond that, I feel proud of my work and want my children to see that hard work and passion in a career can make your life really fulfilling.

Point is, almost all the other kids were going to have a mom their with them supporting them on this fun activity. With my older kids I can explain, and they get it, even when it’s not easy. But at just four, I still feel any explanation I give will be trumped by that feeling of “where is my mommy?!” So, yeah, I kept him home and I told a lie. I don’t feel good about it but I didn’t know what other options I might have had—my husband couldn’t, my parents live abroad and my in-laws are traveling out of state. I know these things seem impossibly hard but I can’t help but think there could be a better way so that working parents can be involved. Could events maybe happen after school in the early evening? Early in the morning? Or could these schedules just alternate times so that parents with different schedules could at least make it some of the time without great difficulty?

Is it totally unreasonable that I held him out? Or is that something you might do?  I don’t mean to say that working moms have it harder than stay at home moms. Heaven knows STAHMs are amazing and do so much work in the home—and they have their own battles to face. What do they do on  “take our children to work day?”

Thanks for letting me vent a bit, guys. It’s rare that I feel this conflicted about something around my parenting decisions, but to be honest, I was sad this morning. It doesn’t make me question my career choices, but it’s hard sometimes to know that as moms we simply cannot be everywhere at once.

Have you ever dealt with a similar situation? What did you do? As always, I love hearing your tips. Share them in the comments!