Priorities

Today the emergency medical response vehicles pulled up on the corner of our road to attend to a young skateboarder who had come hurtling down the hill and fallen off his skateboard, knocking himself out. As I watched him being loaded into the ambulance, it reminded me of an incident when my children were very young.

I have always been lucky enough to have day mothers who only looked after their own children and mine while I worked. At the time, I had a great job with property developers in Cape Town and was always happy that my children were able to enjoy the relative freedom of Kommetjie, rather than a creche in the suburbs. Then a colleague got the bad news that her younger brother, who also lived in Kommetjie, had been skateboarding down a hill and been hit by a car as he swooped across the road without looking. The child suffered permanent disability and brain damage, and it was brought home to me that it was far more important at that stage of my children's lives to be at home with them and know what they were doing at all times. So within days I had resigned from a job that paid well, had working hours that enabled me to miss all the traffic and bosses who were a pleasure to work with.

I started working from home, doing everything from selling beauty products to typing (no computers in those days!) and was able to be flexible enough to do all the things I had to do for the children. Ever since then, I have managed to work close to home, from home and sometimes not at all, with the assistance of a really good network of friends and family.

I can quite safely say that I have always been there for my children, which I believe has played a large part in them not giving me a moment's trouble or any serious concerns. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones and am always grateful for those who helped in the past. You know who you are.