The Magic of Mortification

Had the most mortifying experience yesterday.

I was the listener on a 4-way call with my coaching classmates and the mentor coach, when the thing that I greatly feared came upon me.

My 4 yo, who can normally be trusted to be absolutely quiet with TV/video while Mummy is in her "special" room on the phone, decided she didn't like Postman Pat and wanted me to change channels.

Interestingly, this was also the moment I couldn't find the Mute button on my mobile, the all-critical function that lets me listen while suppressing all background noise. Where is something when you need it?

So the other three people were able to hear everything I was trying so hard to contain: my desperate run through the kitchen to the lounge to control the damage, Miss J's tears and tantrums which instead of subsiding actually escalated in volume, the static as the mobile was carried through different parts of the house...

The mentor coach made it known in quite uncertain terms that she was unable to take notes with all that background noise, and what if it affected an important NLP moment?

I felt like a complete failure. After all, the other coaches are mums too, and they'd been sensible enough to put their kids in daycare. What a nightmare.

It took the better part of the day for me to calm down, let go of my feelings of humiliation and the awful feeling that I had failed my fellows and lost my reputation, and take some constructive action to prevent this from ever happening again.

First thing I did was find out which daycare centre in my area has a vacancy for Miss J.

It's time to admit that keeping her home with me on non-kinder days to save $ is costing me in other ways: I haven't enough time to study and work on the business, and even less flexibility to adjust my schedule for occasions like this.

When I told hubby Woodville Park CC has an 18-month waiting list, he joked that I should look at starting up a childcare centre myself since there's obviously a demand.

I finally found a centre that matches families with home-based carers and charges between $5 and $8 an hour. Now waiting for them to call me with a suitable contact.

If not I'll ask my neighbour down the road if she'll mind Miss J for me next Thu for 2 hours.

The second thing I did was to order an iPhone so I'm ready to do 4-way calls when my turn comes. It's due to arrive today and I shall have great fun figuring it out...once I've found someone to help me install the micro-SIM card properly.

I also sent an email to apologize to my fellow coaches for the inconvenience to them.

The one who acted as coach sent me a very nice reply, which I treasure all the more because she had every right to be cross.

Lesson learned: never underestimate the randoms in life!