When you get the call that your baby girl has plunged down an entire flight of stairs, you are not in your office just around the corner, 100 steps from home, where you have strategically arranged to be on most working days. You are inevitably working across town or even across the country, and undoubtedly meeting with a new client.
You may not recognize the distraught voice on the other end of the phone, but it is your husband or babysitter, still trembling from witnessing the fall in slow motion. You quickly assess the situation and give instructions in a clear and decisive manner. The calmness of your voice is reassuring to the receiver, but it is foreign to you. “Meet you at the hospital,” and then you make a run for it.
It is rush hour and driving is not an option. You run for the tram, and miss it. Pushing through the rush hour crowd at Central Station, you find yourself sitting on a train that is standing still, inevitably delayed. Your new mobile phone is flashing low battery, so you conserve power and wait for news. You forget that you were too busy all day to eat, your stomach is tied in knots.
You don’t think that it would have been different if you had been there, you know it could have happened on your watch. But, you need to be there now. Your only wish is the wish of every Working Mom who tries to do the impossible every day; to be in multiple places at once. We wish that we could fly!
Suzy Ogé is an American born business woman living in The Hague, The Netherlands. 
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Murphy’s Law!!!! Everyone is alive and safe so we clap at the end of today for that. Yeah!!!
The worst is thinking that we can be everywhere!