It seems that just about everyone born in Minnesota decides to stay here, meaning young families often have extensive support systems in the form of grandparents and relatives.  Of course, Lisa and I aren’t from around these parts, and so the past week has been rather challenging.

While in Madison we got the bad news that the two-year-old son of one of Lisa’s close friend Aimee was in the hospital with an unknown illness.  Aside from the obvious concern we had for him, this presented us with the practical problem of losing our childcare for the week.  Aimee and Lisa both work part time, and set up a babysitting agreement where each takes care of the other’s son for a few hours a week.  With both of the other sitters we know busy with day jobs, Lisa scrambled to cobble together sitters for the week.  I ended up having to work from home one morning, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if not for an important meeting I had to call into rather than attend in person.  (I was the only person not in the meeting room; the conference bridge had been set up just for me.)

We survived, of course, and in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t as bad as having our son in the hospital, but it did illustrate how we’re a bit on our own compared to many other parents in the area.  Sure, this may sound like a generalization, but it would take more than two hands for me to count the parents we know that have family around here, while for the parents who don’t…  Well, to my count, we only know two.

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Over the past year Lisa has made some good connections with other moms in our neighborhood, and, to be sure, we have many friends around here we can count on.  For me, though, weeks like the one we just had are just another encouragement for me to get out of Minnesota.  That doesn’t mean I’d want to move closer to family, but it does mean I’d be interested in finding someplace where not “everyone is from around here,” wherever that “here” may be.

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For what it’s worth, Aimee’s son is back home, still sick, but doing better.  He’d apparently caught a nasty virus that had been making the rounds.