Walk.It.Off. Really Mom?

There were no tender kisses or hand-holding from my mother when I got sick. More often than not I heard ''Walk it off, you're fine". I use to joke that unless my mother saw the bone sticking out of the skin, there was no missing school or any after-school activities. If I did end up staying home, as soon as I was able to either watch television or keep down any food other than dry toast and flat ginger ale, I was deemed well enough to resume my regular activities. My Mom's theories were:

• If you're well enough to sit up and watch tv you're well enough to sit at a desk and listen to your teacher.

• If you can eat food, you're better.

It didn't work exceptionally well back then and less so now. Although I thank my Mother every day for the wonderful work ethic she instilled in me, infecting an entire office because I'm able to 'walk it off' isn't doing me or any one else in my office any favours.

Forget about my productivity level (which would be close to a flat-line on a ECG monitor) I risk taking out a large part of the office because I didn't stay home for a day, maybe two. Letting go of ingrained childhood values is very difficult (even when we know how idiotic they are) but for the sake of my colleagues, team-mates, clients and projects, I'm trying. I'm trying VERY hard.

I will now return to my couch to rest this flu away.