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It Takes a Village. Parents Know They’re Not Getting One.
We just have one simple request.
Her boss called early in the morning, while she was still scrambling with her kids. She’s a single quarantine mom, recently divorced.
“Can you hop on this meeting?”
“Not really,” she said.
He got huffy. “We really need you on this call. It’s important.”
She dropped everything.
As you can imagine, the meeting wasn’t that important. (They never are.) She answered two questions, barely finishing a sentence before someone cut her off. Eventually she muted herself and finished getting her kids ready. The big bosses like to air drop meetings on people. They cancel them at the last minute. It makes them feel important.
This happens all the time.
Coworkers are asking us to take on big volunteer projects. Bosses are trying to delegate their work. They’re scheduling pointless meetings, sometimes in-person. They’re not asking when we’re available. They’re just expecting us to magically upend our childcare routines.
They act offended when we remind them that we’re parents.
They assume our kids are all back in school, even if millions of us are keeping our kids home for their…
