Author: Lyndsey Fifield

Becoming a mom has been the most meaningful experience of my life. My sweet daughter has given me feelings of joy I never thought possible and has brought my husband and I even closer together as we learn to navigate the vast world of parenting and make daily choices for our family.

While I was pregnant I was OBSESSED with watching Youtube videos that helped answer all my many questions (and give me a whole new set of motherhood anxieties): Tips for breastfeeding, early childhood development, and even “work life balance” to help me jump back into work after maternity leave… but recently I learned about a facet of parenting that has somehow escaped the otherwise OVERWHELMING and thorough treasure trove of content available to parents in search of answers: WHAT THE HECK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN OR KIDS ARE SICK AND WE LITERALLY HAVE TO BE AT WORK?

This past week I had a trip to Dallas for a company I’m helping launch (details coming soon!) and the PLAN was for my husband to be solo and lean on neighborhood childcare while I was gone (4 days, 3 nights)… just before I left, my precious 11 month-old got a cold *slightly* too bad to stick to the regular childcare plan but not bad enough that I felt I should cancel my trip to stay home with her (she was fast crawling around the house like a maniac and tormenting the dog: TRUST ME, she was fine).

What I don’t understand is how childcare providers can continue to pretend tiny humans (who are sick ALMOST ALL THE TIME) must be kept home whenever they have the SLIGHTEST symptoms. I would love to know if this is a post-COVID development or if providers have always been this way.

And what I really want to know is… what are moms supposed to DO about it? I love that my new job affords me the ability to work from home full time and be here for this precious time with my baby, and I REALLY want to emphasize how much being a stay at home/work from home mom RULES… but when the work trip calls, what option do we have?

While many of us live close to family, the reality for most moms (especially those of us in DC) are dependent on a network of fellow mom friends in their neighborhood/church community, etc. to step in when we need them. I want to be that person who can step up and help my friends when they’re in this situation (maybe scoring some good mom karma) but ironically… I don’t know that I’d want to babysit for a friend with sick kids *lest I get my own kid sick* and let the cycle continue.

The internet is SHOCKINGLY devoid of answers on this subject, just a bunch of moms doing what I’m doing now: complaining about it.

So I thought to myself “if only I had access to a vast network of moms who have experienced exactly this thing and might be able to offer some guidance about it…” and remembered, duh, YOU GUYS.

SO lay it on me, sisters: WHAT do you do when you have a sick kid and a meeting/work trip/obligation that can’t be missed?