office expressions.

musings from my experience at the home/office.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Little Dutch Boy

I had one of my more realistic discussions with my boss today about my upcoming maternity leave, and while he is very flexible and just wants to know what I'm thinking, he touched on the fact that I am already feeling torn. He's so right!

Right now, I feel like the little Dutch boy with his finger plugging up the whole in the dyke, preventing the North Sea from crashing in and flooding his country. Don't know that Hans Brinker story? You should, it's a good one, especially if you're Dutch.


In a few weeks, I am going to have to hand over my responsibilities to other people and trust that they will take them just as seriously while I am out. Because, quite frankly, I don't want to even think about werk for the first month or two of being a new mom.

I know there will come a point at the close of my 6 week 'short term disability leave' that I need to make a decision about how fast/completely I return to werk...or whether I continue to cash out my paid time off hours. And honestly, I just won't know what I want to do until that day comes...so much is up in the air for our little family right now, the one thing I am focusing on is being thankful for a job with benefits that provides for us, supports such a flexible werk environment, and allows me to make decisions in the best interest of my family. Until then, I'm working up my contingency plan for whose finger will do the best job preventing an all out flood in my absence. (Sorry for the weird analogy...but it totally makes sense to me today!)

3 comments:

  1. Here I thought you'd dreamed you were having a little "Dutch" boy! Actually, "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skate" is a different story than "Pieter and the dike." It doesn't matter, however. I only know that because I named my son after the first book mentioned, in which there is also a Pieter, but not the boy who puts his finger in the dike. We spelled ours Peder because it is Scandinavian. There is also a Pieter in "Heidi." He is Pieter, the goatherd. This is probably too much information. Sorry.

    One more comment: whomever takes your place will be thankful you have it so well organized! It's just like you to be thoughtful, Jill.

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  2. Oh interesting! I didn't know all of that, I just googled 'little dutch boy' and got this story about Hans Brinker: http://members.chello.nl/m.jong9/map12/hansbrinker.html

    Thanks, Donna for the kind comments!

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    Replies
    1. That was a very interesting article, Jill. I stand corrected! I knew both stories were fiction, but I don't recall reading about the dike situation in Hans Brinker. Oh, well.

      Are you choosing Dutch names? I think you should!!!

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