Graceful Parenting in Austin

I haven’t blogged for a few days. I went on a short (less than 24 hours!) women’s retreat (stories to follow) and spent a lot of time with some family administrative business (oh no!). I have a lot of posts in me, but only so much time to write, so here is a short one.

I was angry, frustrated, sad, worried and weepy about this administrative business. I left a message first thing Friday morning for a medical professional and stated very clearly that I needed to hear back before the weekend. I KNEW she wasn’t going to call back. This has happened SO many times before. I REALLY need to talk to her and I give her the WHOLE day to call back and she doesn’t. It isn’t like she is the CABLE guy and who cares if your CABLE doesn’t work, she is a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL FOR CHILDREN who doesn’t RETURN HER CALLS.

So, it is Sunday and I’m telling Blue Eyes how I KNEW she wouldn’t call, she ALWAYS does this, she is so WRONG and he says, “Did you page her?” and I say “Page her? Uh, umm, uhhhhh, no, I didn’t PAGE her.” He says yes, she is terrible with messages, but she will always answer a page.

I’m a person who thinks she has common sense, so why didn’t I think of this? Well, for one thing, I think paging someone is the same as calling 911. Someone should be bleeding before someone else gets paged. But, maybe that isn’t what a page means to her. Maybe to her, a page is what people do when they really want to talk to her. But, I was also very busy being ANGRY and as you may know from a previous post, I’m not very smart when I’m angry.

This morning, I paged her, she called right back and I got my questions answered.

Was I still right? Maybe. And I could write a letter to her boss or confront her in person or switch doctors. But last Friday, when I needed answers for my child, it wasn’t the time to BE RIGHT, it was the time to be calm, save the judgement for later and find an answer. The answer that was in my pocket the whole time, her pager number is in my cell phone, always ready to go.