As a Boss Mom, has this ever happened to you?  Your child is up sick the night before you have an intense schedule of meetings.  Seeing my child sick is agonizing so of course, I decide to stay up with him to offer support and comfort (and a middle of the night Cars viewing to help him feel better).  To be fair, I knew my schedule was going to be grueling the next day.  So, I could have asked my husband to stay up with our son.  But honestly, I wanted to be there to soothe him and rub his forehead.  I guess it’s the mama bear in me!  

As it turns out, my little guy didn’t have a speedy recovery and was sick for the next couple of days.  So, I had to do a bit of scheduling jiu-jitsu to unexpectedly fit both roles into my schedule. I learned a lot in those few days and thought I would drop a few tips here for you to use if needed.  

1. Take a deep breath! No, for real!! When things hit the fan, I had to really stop myself from going into full panic mode and just take a few breaths to center myself.  What helped me to do this was I made a cup of tea.  The process of letting the water boil and the tea bag seep gave me time to take some deliberate breaths before jumping into high gear.

2. Look closely at your calendar to see what’s flexible.  For me, everything is important.  Every client meeting, every staff meeting, every coaching call.  It’s all important.  But when I needed to prioritize creating space in my calendar to support my son, I looked to see where there was some flexibility.  Surprisingly, upon close review, there were some appointments that could be easily adjusted with the appropriate outreach to explain the request for the change.

3. Be transparent about your needs and offer rescheduling options.  This one was hard for me but when I did it, the response was incredible.  Instead of omitting the real reason why I needed to reschedule, I was upfront about my family emergency.  Every person I shared with was s empathetic and some even offered tips for me and my son!  I was shocked.  I typically don’t mix business with personal information..  But, this situation showed me how valuable it is to be a bit more open with others.  People want to support you.  But you have to share aspects of yourself so they know how to support you.  It was a good lesson for me.  Also, in my request to reschedule, I offered a large number of options to accommodate the change.  I wanted to make it super simple to reschedule.

In the end, I was able to show up for my son and support him while he wasn’t feeling his best.  At the same time, I learned something new about being a Boss Mom. Sometimes it means downshifting one role to have space to amplify the other.  When you need to do that, be transparent with others about what you need and why.  You’ll be surprised how many supportive people you have around you who will respect your needs.  What a valuable discovery in the midst of a chaotic moment!