Around December 15th, Ian was diagnosed with whooping cough and missed a week of school. Then schools closed for ten days after Christmas. Later, schools closed again for two snow days and one flood day. Since my kids go to school in different school districts, they always have different school holidays. Both boys were off for one week off in February. Jonah's school is closed this week. Ian will be home for a week later in the month. There were two parent-teacher conferences. And twice, I had to pick up a sick kid from school.

In the past, those school vacation and emergencies put me in a cold sweat. Steve would use a couple of weeks of his vacation time to watch the kids during the school breaks, but most of these childcare crises were my responsibilities for obvious reasons — if he loses his job, we're on food stamps.

The morning routine was also entirely on my plate. Steve boards his bus for the city before the kids even wake up in the morning. 

There were the expenses and headaches of hiring people to help us. We paid triple the costs at a daycare to cover a shadow for Ian. We had flaky babysitters who weren't patient with Ian or who forgot to show up. There were many times that I paid more to babysitters than I made from teaching.

I'm so lucky to not have to deal with those problems this year. It is such an enormous weight off my shoulders. 

Angie Kim explains that feminists are reconsidering Mommy Track jobs.

UPDATE: The White House is having a conference on work-place flexibility. I'm watching it online RIGHT NOW. (3/31/10 2:00PM) Dooce is there.