Another day, another broken heart

Maybe I should just stop answering calls from home when I’m at work. Last week, it meant I had to bail from work to tend to a sick baby. Today, it was to tend to a broken heart.

Beloved: Sorry to bug you, but do you have a few minutes to talk to Tristan?

Me: Sure. What’s up? (I secretly love getting calls from the kids at work. I love the fact that I have to talk extra loud and that there is no mistaking the conversation for a business call and half the floor gets to hear me talking to my adorably preccocious preschoolers.)

Beloved: I actually had to wake him up to get ready to go to daycare today, and now he’s upset that he didn’t get a chance to kiss you goodbye.

Me (heart shrinking into pea-sized lump of coal): Sure, put him on.

Beloved, in background as phone is handed off: Okay, here she is. No more crying, okay?

Tristan: (sniffle)

Me: (with false brightness) Hi baby! Did you have a good sleep?

Tristan: (snuffle) Mommy, I’m sad! I didn’t get to give you a hug and a kiss before you went to work!

(SNAP! Sound of my heart breaking in two.)

Me: It’s okay, Tristan. I’ll give you an extra big hug and kiss when I get home, okay? And anyway, I gave you a nice smoochy kiss when you were sleeping before I left. Don’t cry, sweetie. We’ll have extra kisses as soon as I see you tonight.

Tristan (reluctantly mollified): Okay, mommy.

Me: (hangs up phone. Dissolves into puddle of unhappy guilt)

Sigh…

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

10 thoughts on “Another day, another broken heart”

  1. Oh, we are all about the guilt here at the Scribbler-Blue Mansion. Baby Blue woke herself up at an unconscionable hour this morning because she feared that her beloved Dada and big brother would leave without her knowledge. Sometimes my husband can’t bring himself to leave because she weeps so piteously about it. Thank god he has a job where working at home is usually an acceptable option.
    Hugs to you on this guilt-ridden day!

  2. oohh, I’ve so been there! ouch all right!
    hope your hearts mend nicely tonight, hot chocolate would help, no?
    hugs

  3. That type of morning is so, so rough. Hopefully extra kisses and hugs this evening will ensure that all is well again tomorrow morning.

  4. You can step over this mom who is now a puddle on the floor. 😐 I feel ya Dani!
    Here’s to hoping someday we become magically independently wealthy and the kids can get all the hugs and kisses we want ALL day long.
    p.s. this EXACT conversation happens almost routinely in my mornings. Only it is my son crying about the hugs he missed from dad in the morning.

  5. It’s times like this that you need a polaroid camera. While Tristan is sleeping have Beloved take a pic of you kissing him good-bye. Then leave it on his pillow for when he wakes up 🙂
    Anna

  6. Anna, I love it!!! We could do that with the digital camera – the boys love looking at themselves on Flickr.
    GREAT idea!! Thanks!!
    And of course, thank you everyone for wallowing with me for an afternoon. On many days, I love my job, but there is not a single one that I wouldn’t drop it all to be home with the boys.
    xo Dani

  7. Melting….but in a sense you should be happy (?) cause you are SOOOO loved and missed. What a sweetheart you are raising.
    How come when I call my boys ‘baby’ in the term of endearment sense, I always get “I am NOT a baby!”

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