No time to get sick!

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CEO Mom

By Carol Evans

Twitter: @CarolEvansWM

As the founder and President of Working Mother Media I have been involved with the advancement of working moms for 30 years. I am often a keynote speaker on the subject of work-life balance, the advancement of women, barriers facing women of color, and leadership. When asked to appear on major talk shows including The Early Show, The Today Show, Oprah, Good Morning America, PBS's To the Contrary and on hundreds of radio shows or to comment in newspapers nationwide, I love to tell the world how hard working mothers work to keep their families and the businesses they work for moving and growing. I told many of my stories in the award-winning book: This is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto.

Join me in this amazing conversation. By the way, I would not be a working mom without my two great kids - all grown up - Julia Rose and Robert Scott; and my husband Bob Coulombe is by my side every step of this journey. Let me know what you are thinking!

No time to get sick!

Posted on December 28, 2007

I can't believe it!

It's not fair! I've been working my butt off all year. Traveling a lot, hosting dozens of events, meeting new readers, new clients and new friends. Finally, I'm looking forward to 11 days off in a row because of how the holidays land this year and what happens? The minute we get to JFK to fly to my dad's in Chicago I feel my throat tightening up like a twisted rubber band. An hour later my forehead is warm enough to melt an ice cube and my ears feel like someone is using a sqeegee in there. On the plane I get a full blown head throbbing thing going on, with some joint pain thrown in for good measure.

Not good! Not when you're out visiting your 87 year old dad and two brothers who have immune system issues. And just to be a bit selfish--not good when you're planning to have a great Christmas cause its at someone else's house in someone else's town so you have very few responsibilities besides showing up and paying for the roast beef.

Julia's advice was good: don't say you're sick. "If you ignore it you'll get better," she said authoritatively. How can I ignore the fact that swallowing my Diet Dr. Pepper feels like a boulder going down?

"It's not my fault," I'll tell my dad and brothers. I got this from one of two sources: either from Robert who was coughing and wheezing when I picked him up at college last Saturday, or from my sweet brother in law Ron, who was hacking away on our recent trip to Coulombe Christmas. It's not my fault, but if everyone else gets sick I know they'll blame me. I'll be the one that stepped into the house with a kleenex stuffed in my nose.

I'm going to fight it with all I've got. Tea, osciccillium, vitamin C, Advil, zinc: I'll swallow them all (if I can swallow). And I'm wondering if I pretend I have a client meeting tomorrow, a really big one, could I trick my body. Body, do not give in to vacation sickness! Fight, blood cells, fight like you would if I had a big conference coming up. In a way I do. The Evans Family Christmas is a great event. Much diminished by the absense of my mother, but still a show not to be missed.