Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to think through your winter backup plan.
Speaker 1: Between bad weather and illnesses, much can go wrong, but
Speaker 1: if you anticipate obstacles ahead of time, you can stay
Speaker 1: on track. I'm generally an optimistic person, but when it
Speaker 1: comes to plans, I've discovered that it's useful to be
Speaker 1: a pessimist. For instance, in general, air travel works great,
Speaker 1: but whenever you try to connect, you double the chances
Speaker 1: of late flights leaving you stranded. So if there aren't
Speaker 1: direct flights out of Philadelphia, where I live to my destination,
Speaker 1: I'll often drive to Newark to get one. It's an
Speaker 1: extra fifty minutes in the car, but that beats getting
Speaker 1: stuck for eight hours or overnight in O'Hare. Winter presents
Speaker 1: all sorts of chances for things to go wrong, so
Speaker 1: as with flying direct, it's wise to ask if there
Speaker 1: are any little investments you can make now to prevent
Speaker 1: misery or big time sinks later on. Here's one. My
Speaker 1: family doesn't get in the car for winter trips without coats, hats,
Speaker 1: and gloves. Sure we're going from a heated house to
Speaker 1: a heated car to a heated location somewhere else. But
Speaker 1: you never know when there could be an accident or
Speaker 1: some reason you might have to get out of the car.
Speaker 1: That would be bad enough with winter gear, without boots
Speaker 1: and gloves, it might be really dangerous. Likewise, here's what
Speaker 1: I learned the hard way. If you live somewhere that
Speaker 1: snow is a possibility, never park your car on the
Speaker 1: roof deck of a garage. Once in March, all was
Speaker 1: sunny when I left for Seattle. I returned after midnight
Speaker 1: a few days later to find my car bury did
Speaker 1: not only the ten inches of snow that had fallen,
Speaker 1: but the drifts that the plow had created as it
Speaker 1: shoveled out the lanes. I should have checked the forecast
Speaker 1: and hunted a little harder for a spot on a
Speaker 1: lower level. Sleet and snow can create all sorts of
Speaker 1: issues that behoove backup plans. For instance, if you have
Speaker 1: school aged children, school maybe your default childcare for much
Speaker 1: of the day. So if there are days of two
Speaker 1: hour delays due to weather, how do you plan to
Speaker 1: deal with them? How about early dismissals, or if school
Speaker 1: is closed for snow. Of course, if school is closed
Speaker 1: for snow, your office might be too. But your office
Speaker 1: doesn't close. When a child is homesick from school or daycare.
Speaker 1: What's your backup plan for that? It should be a
Speaker 1: robust plan, Because it turns out little kids get sick
Speaker 1: a lot. I didn't really appreciate this when I first
Speaker 1: became a parent years ago. My husband and I put
Speaker 1: are yet to be born first son on the list
Speaker 1: for a great daycare within walking distance of our apartment.
Speaker 1: This seemed like a perfect solution in our minds. This
Speaker 1: meant our child care needs were solved. Then that first winter,
Speaker 1: our son got sick for approximately five weeks total, nothing serious,
Speaker 1: thank goodness, just low grade fevers and tummy troubles. But
Speaker 1: these meant we'd wake up in the morning and realize
Speaker 1: he couldn't go to daycare. This was stressful in terms
Speaker 1: of trying to plan work. We wound up with several
Speaker 1: backup sitters who had during the day availability on short notice.
Speaker 1: We also wound up with an understanding that if I
Speaker 1: covered more of the work week, my husband would have
Speaker 1: the baby much of the weekend and I could work then.
Speaker 1: Though it turns out no one wants to schedule a
Speaker 1: meeting on Saturday afternoon, so long term this wasn't going
Speaker 1: to work. This is why we hired a nanny by
Speaker 1: the time our second son was born. Though this turns
Speaker 1: out not to be fool proof either. Caregivers can get
Speaker 1: sick too, so we need backup plans for that as well.
Speaker 1: That said, i've met families that do manage the little
Speaker 1: kid illness as well, even with school or daycare as
Speaker 1: the primary childcare. Children are a shared responsibility, which means
Speaker 1: that childcare is a shared responsibility and backup plans are
Speaker 1: a shared responsibility too. On my blog recently, I profiled
Speaker 1: a family that elected to split days when the kids
Speaker 1: had to stay home. She might take the morning with
Speaker 1: a sick child and he would take the afternoon. This
Speaker 1: was inefficient in some ways because both parties had to
Speaker 1: commute and both had to get ready, but the upside
Speaker 1: was that neither had to take a full day off.
Speaker 1: They would push meetings into the half day they had
Speaker 1: in the office and log extra hours early or late
Speaker 1: to get their most urgent to dos accomplished. I have
Speaker 1: also seen couple split days of the week when each
Speaker 1: is on call, so if a snow or sick day
Speaker 1: happens on Monday or Tuesday, one parent covers. If it
Speaker 1: happens on Wednesday or Thursday, the other parent covers. Maybe
Speaker 1: Friday rotates. This way, both parties can triage their schedules
Speaker 1: to aim to put anything unmis stable on the days
Speaker 1: that they won't miss. Or maybe you're lucky enough to
Speaker 1: have really reliable backup care like grandma living next door.
Speaker 1: A loving caregiver who doesn't mind dealing with running noses
Speaker 1: on short notice is something to celebrate in winter. As
Speaker 1: for your own illnesses and managing teams who might be
Speaker 1: dealing with illnesses and bad weather, the best thing you
Speaker 1: can do as a backup plan is to work ahead.
Speaker 1: It's rarely a good idea to leave things to the
Speaker 1: last minute in general, but it's a particularly bad idea
Speaker 1: during winter, when leaving just twenty four hours for a
Speaker 1: key person to review a proposal is an invitation for
Speaker 1: that person to be down for the count with the flu.
Speaker 1: Aim to be done by at least a few days
Speaker 1: before any big deadlines. That way, if something hits last minute,
Speaker 1: you're good. If something hits earlier, you've got a buffer
Speaker 1: to absorb the lost time and that can make everyone
Speaker 1: feel far more calm. So today, take a few minutes
Speaker 1: to think about what could go wrong this winter. Think
Speaker 1: about systems and solutions you can come up with now
Speaker 1: to minimize the fallout from these problems. Maybe nothing bad
Speaker 1: will happen, but we live in the real world. Most
Speaker 1: likely something will. Best to be prepared in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart
Speaker 1: media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
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