The Juggle is Real – Day Two

After throwing together a half-decent meal for dinner, you can finally take a deep breath and hope tomorrow is less chaotic.  Maybe the plumber will have a quick visit without costing a small fortune, and maybe all the staff will actually come to work; it’s pay week, so there is a good chance they will.  This would make for a good day; let’s be hopeful, but let’s not count on it.

While cleaning the dishes, you hear your text alert go off; dare you look? Your heart jumps when it goes off again; ugh, you know someone is “calling out.”  Drying your hands, you think to yourself, thank goodness for text options; otherwise, the staff would be calling, and there is no time for actual conversations.  As you reach for your phone, it dings again, but this time, it’s a big smiley face emoji; hopefully, that’s a good sign.  Open, read, smile, and breathe; your opening staff is feeling better and will be there tomorrow!  As you open the second text, a long novel appears. It starts with “Please don’t be upset with me”; well, this ought to be a good one.  Yep,  that family emergency call out this morning has turned into a blah, blah, blah “I’m so sorry, but I can’t come back to work” text.  Great, this is just great! She was working so well with the children, all the parents loved her, and she seemed to be getting along really well with her co-teachers.  After a few choice words to yourself, you reread her text and have no nice words to reply with; you quickly decide to leave that one until tomorrow. Where on earth do they come up with these reasons to resign from a job?  Understanding things happen, but seriously, who will pay their bills when this “family emergency” resolves itself next week?  The smiley emoji doesn’t seem as cute now, but it was a nice gesture from your opening staff after she told you she was feeling better.  The opener got a thumbs-up reply with a Thank you for letting me know, I’m glad you’re feeling better message, but the other one isn’t getting a reply tonight; this you’ll have to think about.

On with your evening, a nice hot shower and comfy bed are waiting for you.  As you head to bed for a good night’s sleep, you realize you should probably go in a little early to make up for not finishing everything today.  Rest is always helpful for keeping a clear mind to solve daily worldly issues in child care.  The minute your head hits the pillow, you are asleep, off to sweet dreams.

Toss, turn, flip, flop, you look at the clock: 2:02 am!  NOOOOOO, this is not what you need to do at 2 in the morning.  The “Don’t be upset with me” text is rolling through your mind like a NASCAR race car.  What are you going to do tomorrow? Forget that mess. What are you going to do, period? Now your mind is reviewing the applications you have on file, all 3 of them. Should you call her and talk through it, could you offer suggestions to allow her to continue her employment? Should you even bother after she called out last minute and then quit by text? Is it worth trying, or will it seem like you’re desperate and begging?   You might be a little desperate, and you are not beyond a little begging, but do you even bother or do you just acknowledge her resignation by asking her to put it in writing?  Ugh, now you’re getting upset because you can’t turn off your brain and go back to sleep. More tossing, turning, flipping, and flopping, but putting the pillow over your head at some point must have worked because the alarm is now going off, and it’s time to start the day.

Aren’t Keurig’s nice, freshly brewed coffee at the push of a button?  You hit the button twice this morning to ensure the travel mug is as full as possible. It may not be one of those popular Stanley mugs, but it works fine: hot coffee for the next two hours, isn’t life-grand!

The day starts quietly. There are only two post-it notes on your desk from your opener, but nothing that requires too much thinking.  You and your assistant devised a temporary plan to cover everything until the right candidate can be hired to fill the newly vacant position.  Sometimes, your assistant amazes you with her creativity; note to self: remember and acknowledge her creative abilities during the holidays.

Let’s talk for a second about Legos; they are great toys that can be used to teach many different concepts.  It’s also a great toy that may require a licensed plumber to remove one from a toilet when it’s lodged in the drain.  This little yellow piece of plastic just cost you over two hundred dollars, and the plumber thought it was hilarious to ask if you wanted to keep it.  This isn’t the first toy he has managed to remove from a drain; the last one was a puzzle piece, and NO, you didn’t want to keep that one either.

As you head down the hall toward the kitchen to rinse the final drops from your morning coffee mug, there is a faint sound you can’t quite make out, a slightly muffled sound.  Glancing into the classroom on the left, all is well; children are playing while the teacher is cleaning a table following a very messy art lesson.   Rounding the corner, you realize the sound is coming from the kitchen.  The cook is standing by the pantry with tears rolling down her face as she tries to smile when you come in.  Well, obviously, everything is not okay, so that’s not the right question to present.  Thinking as fast as you can after a restless night, you ask her what you can do to help. Maybe that wasn’t the best question either, but you are all in now.  In great detail, she explained a personal situation requiring her to be out of work tomorrow.  Through the tears, she said she could not afford to miss a day and tried to make arrangements to avoid missing work; however, there was no way around it.  While drying her tears, she quietly asked if she could use one of her vacation days, although advance notice for paid time off is required.  Ugh, how do you tell her no? She is a hard worker; she does a good job and rarely has personal issues that interfere with her job.  You hear yourself telling her she can use a vacation day; after all, you aren’t completely heartless; it is her time earned. A small smile appears, and a quick thank you is expressed as she excuses herself to freshen up and finish in the kitchen.   You now have another opportunity for your assistant to show off her creativity with the staffing schedules.

After reviewing tomorrow’s schedule, you both realize there are no good solutions to cover the cook. Other than yourself and your assistant, only two others are trained to work in the kitchen; after all, it’s not an easy job. The other two are already scheduled overtime to cover their classroom for the afternoon shift, so they aren’t an option.  Brainstorming with your assistant wasn’t getting you anywhere this time; each of the creative suggestions was going to cause other issues.  Looks like your assistant will be cooking tomorrow, although it’s the day she is taking a long lunch break for a dentist appointment.  No worries; she doesn’t need to leave until 11:30; you can easily clean up the kitchen after the lunch prep is completed and prepare snacks for the children; thankfully, she scheduled her dentist appointment for mid-day and only needed a long break; she will even be back in time for the bus route.  No worries: You’ve got this!  No worries: You have some great staff! No worries: You don’t mind helping when needed! No worries: who are you trying to convince? There are constant worries.

Following a quick trip to the bank and grabbing a salad, which you will eat later at your desk, the afternoon flew by, and only a few minor things popped up, but all in all, the afternoon was good.  You managed to start on the monthly newsletter, reply to a couple of emails, and make the collection calls you started to do yesterday before you were interrupted by the call from your three-year-old teacher; you’re still crossing your fingers she doesn’t get hit with the stomach bug.

Where did today go? You started by going in early with good intentions, but the day flew by.   Another day done; looking back, you did accomplish a few things, but like most days, you don’t feel it was enough.  Is it ever really enough?

Thank goodness it’s Taco Tuesday at the local restaurant, and your husband is always open for a Mexican dinner.  Yippee, no cooking tonight!  Dinner out, a nice hot shower, and just knowing there is a staffing plan in place, you are looking forward to a good night’s sleep. The office lights are out, the door is locked, you’re off to dinner, and it’s only 6:05 pm.