My oldest daughter is off today as her district has an inservice day. My wife and I had worked hard to have a babysitter available for days when this happens, and our babysitter and daughters get along extremely well.
Unfortunately, on Wednesday evening, our babysitter said that she wasn’t available for Friday.
Which put us into “What do we do now?” mode.
The good news is we both work for organizations where, in a pinch, they can be supportive of us bringing our kids to work. The challenge, of course, is when we do that, our minds are never entirely on our work, which makes us much less effective for that day (and truth be told, we can never pay enough attention to our children in those situations, which is a bummer).
So, I reached out to my parents, who were happily able to step in and help us out of a jam.
My parents don’t live around the corner, so it isn’t incredibly easy for them to help out all the time. But, they are there when we truly need them, and though I know we express our appreciation, I don’t know if they really know how much we value their help.
Family, and community, are so important to us being impactful professionals, and balanced people. In our work, just as in our personal lives, we have to make sure that we not only see the value and need of helping each other out, but that we also welcome the chance to be both the giver, as well as the receiver, of aid.
When we show that it is “okay” and in fact “appropriate” for us to both need help, and be willing to give it at any time, we show others that a community is built on this balance of giving and receiving. Relationships require us to shift from positions of expertise to novice, and it is that constant fluctuation that allows for ties to form and bonds to strengthen.
Happily, in both my personal and professional lives, I feel that synergistic flow exists. And of course, the value it provides makes me realize just how much I need to keep it in my life!