This year was no exception. In anticipation of a smooth transition, I made myriad work commitments as part of my own “back to school” schedule.
School started Tuesday with a three hour orientation from 9-12. The kids all loved their teachers. The girls looked so cute in their back to school outfits, neatly braided hair, and their new backpacks. My son sported a new buzz cut and an Abercrombie outfit he’d shopped for himself. Everything was bathed in an Indian summer glow.
Until that night at dinnertime, when my son went pale and started throwing up. The flu. He was up all night. We spent most of the next day at the doctor’s office – glad I could be there with him, glad he had neither swine flu nor Strep. But that time was supposed to be spent prepping for four important meetings next week.
Then last night my two girls both got sick. And I’d forgotten that the electrician was coming this morning to fix the phone, the computers and the television. The back door lock jammed – luckily the locksmith was available.--
Leslie Morgan Steiner authors Two Cents on Working Motherhood on MommyTrack'd. She is the editor of the best-selling anthology Mommy Wars and the memoir Crazy Love. Steiner is a frequent guest on the Today Show, MSNBC, and regularly contributes to The New York Times, Newsweek and Vanity Fair. She lives with her husband and 3 kids in Washington, DC.
