"I tried telling her to man up, but it didn't seem to work. At this point, I'm out of options."
In her younger years, my daughter had huge problems with dehydration when she got sick. She wouldn't drink anything -- we couldn't even force feed her. Not even those Popsicle things that all parents say do the trick. She was hospitalized three times from it, and every time, our world stopped. When you're in that situation, your entire life becomes focused on that moment, making sure that your child gets through it safely. Everything else can wait.
When it happens to a parent, the kids now have to take over their own meals, getting their own homework and chores finished with minimal or nonexistent guidance ... which usually means it doesn't get done. It's the same with business. How many times have you arrived at work and seen a manager bouncing around in chaos as she tries to lure some poor sucker in to cover someone else's shift? Yes, getting sick yourself shuts down your week, but it's hard to remember that it does the same to the worker who has to cancel all of his plans on his only day off in order to make sure your shift gets covered. Or the single mom who now has to skip work in order to take care of her kids. Or the magician who has to find another assistant for tonight's show because the mosquito trick gave his last one malaria.
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