Family Comes First

I started a new full time position as a headhunter a few weeks ago. I went through extensive training and got into the flow of working every day. And two days ago, my goal of being employed full time came to a screeching halt.

My son is having difficulties in school and is going to need a few days of occupational therapy every day. In a moment, nothing else mattered but my son.

I discussed the options with my husband that night. We discussed that there was no amount of money and no other person in the world that could hold a candle to our son. We heard from the counselor at school that our son needed some special attention and so I made the decision that night to resign my position effective immediately.

I went in the next day and my employer was incredibly understanding. He saw the whole thing develop and knew what a strain it was on my family. He told me I have an open opportunity to come back whenever I could. I have a feeling though that this new adventure into learning how to work with my son, is going to take up the next several years. Somehow, I feel a new chapter developing.

As I become more and more of an advocate for my son at his school, I’ll be learning new information about an issue I didn’t know existed until recently. It’s called Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Jeremy has difficulty processing transition from one activity to another and has other behavior issues that cause him stress. Each child has different symptoms but it is a deeply misunderstood issue and often causes problems in school.

So, I resigned from my position as a recruiter and am now connecting with doctors, the insurance companies, the school counselor and writing notes every day to my son’s teacher. It’s a full time job in itself.

Being an ambitious career woman has now taken a back seat to making sure that my son is getting the assistance he needs. I’m still the scrappy, creative, outgoing person who loves meeting new people and bringing in fresh energy wherever I go. I’ll still maintain my coaching clients and consult for individuals and companies when I can. But my major job will be educating myself and those involved with Jeremy on how to work with him with the least amount of frustration possible.

Family comes first. You always hear that, but it’s mostly when we’re tested that we are able to prove it. I will be proving it to myself every day for the rest of my life. I hope that I can learn to be successful in this role as I have been in others.

Only time will tell.