Kids and Cats
What it’s like being an older female founder in Germany
“I’m sorry for the late notice, but can we reschedule our weekly check-in for tomorrow, my little girl is sick, and we have to take her to the hospital. We have to take her to the doctor.”
This was an email sent to me by a web developer I was working with a couple of years ago, who was building a new CMS website for my business, Pretty Deadly Self Defense, as we prepared to scale.
Of course, I said yes. Although I have no kids of my own, I can certainly sympathize with parenting a sick child, the panic that sometimes occurs when sickness isn’t easily remedied with a children’s aspirin or chicken soup or a hug, and just the fact that any kid who goes to a preschool or school is liable to pick up a lot of germs and bring them home. Kids get sick. It’s normal. I get it. So I said yes. Of course.
“I’m sorry to do this last minute, but would it be possible to reschedule our weekly check-in for tomorrow? We just got a new kitten and it’s sick. We need to rush to the vet.”
Of course, I said yes. Of course. Although I haven’t had any pets for the past 15 years, I have pets before, and I know firsthand how important it is to keep them healthy. But a sick kittenis not the same as a sick kid: we may not have any remedy at hand and need…