Thank You, Harvard

Thank you, Harvard, for making me feel even worse about myself.  This HBR article says that if I don't smile after work, my early adolescent children's sense of well-being will be shattered.  So awesome!  It is not enough to work hard all day (and, let's face it, into most evening and every weekend) to support my kids, I better come home with a smile on my face.  If I don't smile each night while I juggle the kids' homework (and, honestly, just figuring out what has been assigned is an incredible stress-inducer), my own work, the kids' dinner (my gourmet meal of cheezits comes much later), and laundry, my kids will have a poor sense of well-being.  I couldn't even rephrase that term, because I don't really quite know what it means, but I do know it must mean that my inability to force a pageant-winningly manic smile across my face while saddled with all those responsibilities each and every night is doing my children irreparable harm.  And it's all my fault.

And where did I read this enlightening article, Harvard? Why on a plane to Phoenix for work.  Work that kept me away from my kids for three nights, three nights that I could not aim my pearly whites in their direction, three nights that no doubt eroded their sense of wellbeing yet further, if that is humanly possible. But when I finally arrived home at 3 am, you just know I ran right into their room, woke them up, and beamed madly at them both.  It's the least I can do for them.