Our snow day started at 4am when my son got out of bed to let me know he was wet. Apparently he didn’t listen to me when I told him to stop drinking his bath water.

Being that I knew it was supposed to snow, I went ahead and looked out the window, yep there was snow. It was enough to know that if nothing else, there would be a delay and I could change the alarm to give me an extra hour of heavenly sleep.

When I awoke, I looked out the window again which prompted me to gage my snow day dilemma scale and hit the internet for the school closings. If daycare is closed, I’m left with little to no option. Sure enough, their daycare was closed. Then comes the I’m staying out of work because I’ve got kids call. Gotta love those! Hoping to get voicemail - nope, it’s actually a live human with the great work ethic that leaves parents feeling like we are once again trapped between having children and being able to give just as equally as our counterparts.

So after biting the inevitable bullet, I look at the bright side of things with the extra time with the kids and watching the beautiful snow falling outside. I actually tell myself that I’ll be extra productive with my “down time” and have thoughts of extra writing and cleaning time! But after many minutes of layering dry clothes on, peeling wet clothes off, a few burnt grilled cheeses and making sure no child is victimized by a gigantic icicle, I have given up my hopes and dreams of a productive snow day.

I know every year, there will be at least a day or two when it snows, that I will need to plan my vacation and sick leave days accordingly. Actual vacation, just feeling sorry for myself and hating life and my job day, nope. This year I’ve got 10 days out of the year to take for when my kids are sick, it’s snowing outside or an extra holiday that their daycare or school is closed on.

It just really sucks when you know you’ve only got a handful of paid days left for the year, work will be piled on your desk when you return, and there is the silent whisper of guilt that you had a snow day because you have children and others do not.

We all deserve a few snow days a year, kids or no kids. And I will continue to take mine, especially when I don’t have and can’t afford an on call babysitter. If that were the case, why would I be working in the first place? I just wonder when I’ll stop feeling so darn guilty about it!

Oh yes - when I was thinking of this post, I was also thinking that like so many other great bloggers out there, I needed one of those great snow day pictures with beautiful snow scenery or those great snow angels that I was speaking of. But unfortunately, digital camera #2 has decided to not work for me and getting a new one is still on my to do list…on a more productive day I suppose!