Apology NOT accepted

I was attending a meeting at our Presbytery office today with several other pastors from our quadrant to learn some things about what our Exec had discovered on his learning sabbatical. It was some pretty interesting stuff, not sure it will apply to our church, but I'm willing to learn more.
Anyway, there were 5 of us total and 2 of us were women. Both of us are moms. The other lady pastor is a few years older than me, and she's been in ministry about 8 years to my 1, but I've got a year on her of being a mom. Anyway, fairly close to the end of the meeting, she gets a note from the presbytery secretary that says her son has thrown up and she needs to come back and pick him up from child care. So what does she do? She apologizes profusely for having to leave early!! I'm like, sister, your kid is sick!! You don't apologize for being his mother or for taking care of him! I flat out told her, "M! Stop! Do not apologize to us! You have nothing to be sorry for. He's sick, he needs you. Get out of here!"
Please ladies--all of you who are moms and ministers (or any other kind of professional, really). Do not ever apologize for being a parent. (Same goes for dads too, of course, but they are much less likely to overdo the guilt I've noticed.) I think it helps me that I was a mom for three years before I got into the ministry. She comes first, always. I feel no guilt about this and I was upfront about this with my PNC, and they were all very supportive of that, many of them parents themselves.
So again I say, Sister! Don't apologize for being a good parent. Just stand up, look 'em in the eye and say, "You'll have to excuse me. I have a sick child to attend to." Thank the host and just leave! Be bold!

Guilt Trip

I let myself be guilted into playing my flute in worship this week at the church that I don't really even attend any more. I still go to handbell rehearsals and I go to the young adult group meetings, but I'm ever so not fond of the relatively new pastor, so I don't go to worship there. And the thing is, I'm not really all that good a flautist. I never practice unless someone asks me to play for worship, so my lips are really out of shape. But, I'm also free! This is my main draw. And they're in between music directors and the interim is out of town so they're having the applicants sub as guest organists, too. Good idea, really, but I felt bad for the guy since he was so excited to have a flute player when he's trying to impress the personell committee to hire him, so I agreed to play, which sucks because I forgot that this weekend is Li'l Sis's birthday (not a milestone, thank goodness) and though I hadn't planned on going to visit, she invited me about 20 minutes after I'd agreed to play on Sunday. Oh well, it's really better I don't go, so I don't have to pack up dog and toddler and cram them into small Saturn since big Jeep is broken. And for some reason, the dog always pees on my mom's carpet when we're there. Even if she's just been outside. Bad Dog! I'm sure she's just saying she doesn't like being away from home, but really, does she think it's better to be in a kennel at the vet's?!
I'm also feeling guilty that the house is not as clean as I'd like it to be for P to come home to, so I suppose I'll do a little more work before bed. However, I am very proud that not once did I let the dishes pile up in the last 11 days. So, I guess I'll get to work on the clutter... Really, I'm going... right now...