My love and hate relationship with the mute button

As a fulltime working mom from the home, I don't know where I'd be without the mute button on my phone. That small little button has saved my working relationship many times, as well as allowed me some mommy moments too (even with that headset on I can console a crying child!). Oh yes, my headset has just been upgraded to wireless so I can walk around - the freedom, the excitement. Sometimes I may wander into the bathroom and test the mute button...hello, hello, can you hear me...as the person on the other end keeps talking. I haven't had the nerve to do anything in the bathroom yet - some things are just too private, right?...well for now anyway. And the mute button has also saved people on the other end from the loud cough, the slurp of coffee, all those wonderful human noises we just can't let others hear.

I have learned, however, that the mute button can also turn on you in a moments notice. Is the light really flashing, am I really safe? One day, oh I remember it so vividly... I was actually participating in this call...you know, for you office workers out there, the amount of calls you're on when you don't say a word except for hello and goodbye - mind numbing, isn't it? Anyway, so I actually had to speak, and it was a call that had 8 other people on. It was also a day when my son and daughter were off school and the person who was watching them was taking them to the zoo...for the first time. So in the middle of this call, my cell phone goes off...quick, mute button on - check. I see the call is from the sitter so have to answer. And I proceed to check in with the sitter, whispering, mind you because, I never feel totally safe with that mute button - it can be pesky.

All of a sudden, in my left ear I hear a voice...hello, Kirsten. While in my right ear, I hear, Oh, Ok, so I turn left on Fullerton...then the left ear again - hello, Kirsten, we can hear you. Ohmigod. I've been caught - the big caught. What could I do? I was in phone limbo and had to make fast decisions. Whisper to sitter - I gotta go; and could only hope she'd turned left on Fullerton! Then, back to the meeting, mixture of oh everything's normal tone with a bit of an apologetic laugh...I just basically blathered an apology - it was pathetic. I wanted to hide under the table and eat a box of chocolates. Luckily...most of the people on the call were women, with kids, and were actually great about my blunder. I wonder, what the reaction would have been if the call had been mostly men - I doubt as well. Oh, just thinking about it now makes my heart race a little bit...and also laugh...I mean, haven't we all gotten ourselves into these types of situations? I've become quite good at inserting foot in mouth!

Anyway - it's crazy trying to juggle it all. And I just have to remember - laugh when I can - I'm still here and all's well!