Expensive Absent-Mindedness

As a multitasking teacher, absent-mindedness about smaller things is a trait that is my misfortune to admit and it has proved to be problematic over the years. Motherhood has added several more hats and responsibilities thereby adding another layer of forgetfulness. Multitasking and always being on the go with a million to do lists at times results in smaller things being forgotten.

Being prepared with double of everything

I have become so accustomed to forgetting things that I keep doubles of many things in the car or at school. Like most busy mommies I tend to forget smaller, minute things that get lost in the mix of much bigger, more essential tasks and items. That being said, usually, when I pack, I pack an overabundance of items. For example, I pack at least ten outfits for a 2-day weekend trip. When my baby was in her earliest stages of infancy, I packed twice as many clothes. I also would pack at least ten receiving blankets, a full pack of diapers and more than enough of every other item I would pack. Additionally, I would pack at least two of her creams for her eczema, one in her overnight bag and one in her diaper bag to make sure that we had one for use in the house and one in the car.

Traveling with lots of lotions and creams

However, when you are preparing for a trip across the country with a fussy two-month-old, sometimes important items get overlooked. In the midst of last minute packing for our very first airplane trip, and making sure I packed every little thing she would need down to wash clothes and socks, I made a painstaking mistake. I was packing body washes, lotions and creams when I remembered that airport policy only permits 3 ounce bottles, so I begin to switch over all of my daughter Mia's lotions and creams to smaller bottles and jars when I realized I did not have enough containers to switch the remaining cream, her most important cream, her prescribed hydrocortisone cream. At the time, she was experiencing an outbreak on her face which completely discolored her face and was making her extremely uncomfortable and irritable.

When you realize you forgot something at home

Realizing my mistake, I knew to hurry to the store to get to get a new container as soon as possible, but my child had other plans. She started to rub and touch her face and become quite irritable and fussy. Her face appeared more irritated and flared. I became so worried about her and so intent on preventing her from scratching and trying to stop the flare-up that seemed to be worsening at the most inopportune time that getting the three-ounce container completely slipped my mind. Moreover, when she was finally soothed and asleep, I was exhausted and in my mind, I was ready to go to California. The hydrocortisone completely slipped my mind until the next day when we were on the plane hundreds of feet in the air and hundreds of miles from home. I remember thinking how could I look at that little face with an active atopic dermatitis flare-up and not realize that I'd left her cream behind?