By Cheryl Demas
“Mom! We’ve got a Really Big Problem!” My daughter ran into the family room screaming this the other day. If you’re a mom, you know the kind of images that race through your mind when you hear those words. I always imagine the worst, I was already mentally going through a check list: Stay calm, get the first aid kit, dial 911, We ran down the hall while she explained “I was just LOOKING at the ant farm mom, and then the tube just FELL OFF, and the ants are ESCAPING!”
We rounded the corner and saw her farming ants heading for their exit like K-Mart shoppers heading for a blue-light special.
I quickly swept the ants back into their farm and closed it up. She was so relieved. Then my daughter and I had a little talk about how the tube really came off, and all was well. Once again, Mom saved the day.
I’m grateful that working at home has allowed me to be here with my kids, to help them when they need me, and to help them work through their problems.
This has also made me think about how many times I’ve been upset about something that seemed so overwhelming at the time, only to have it all seem trivial and insignificant once I look back on it. Working at home, it’s easy to get so caught up in our businesses that we can sometimes lose perspective. How many times have I ran around screaming “I’ve got a Really Big Problem!” When I could have just sat down and solved the problem?
I’m sure there will be truly big problems in our future, and we’ll work through them together. But for now, I’m just hoping that my kids’ Really Big Problems continue to be insect related for as long as possible.
