We know we want to be home with our kids. We know we want to make money. There are opportunities out there but it is difficult to make the commitment to a home based business or follow that dream of writing, dancing, painting, etc. You can come up with your own reasons and motivation for going for it, you don’t need me for that. I’m no expert anyway, I am still putting it all together myself. Plus, you can find work at home strategies all over the internet. Instead, I am starting a new segment called “Dangers of Working Outside the Home.” Instead of citing all the reasons and opportunities for working at home, I am going to give you dangers of working outside the home and some ways to avoid potential disasters. Sound fun?
The first culprit of working outside the home that I am going to discuss is carrying too much stuff. My Mother warned me about this just about my entire life. I never took the time to organize my bags. I carried a gigantic purse with money, necessities, and two days worth of supplies to keep me glamorized. As a healthy eater I would often have a can of Slim Fast, veggies, water bottles, or the like in a lunch type bag. Then I would have a tote type bag filled with my “stuff”. In college it was filled with books, binders, and supplies. For work it was files, trade books, office equipment to work at home, etc. Three bags, draped over my shoulders in one way or another. This is dangerous.
It wasn’t until later that I related the pain in my shoulder, neck, and arm to the heavy loads I carried.
At some point in college in the late 80s I started wearing high heels. It really made no sense running through parking ramps, up and down stairs, and across halls wearing these ridiculous heels, but I did it. Bags in tact. This was a whole new point of worry for Mom. She’d say, “You’re gonna break your ankle if you don’t slow down!” “That’s too much to carry at one time, Cindy! Take two trips!”
I didn’t listen.
She didn’t see it in her lifetime, but Mom was eventually right. Headed out the door one day in 2003, double bagged, high in heels, running late for my new job… I went down.
You see there is a step leading from the house into the garage. It is your typical garage step, a little bit steep. In the doorway leading out to the garage there is a lip of trim. My toe hit the lip and I bent forward. Ordinarily I would have been able to save myself from falling with the strength of the other leg. But guess what! My bags were so heavy I couldn’t lift myself with one leg and therefore couldn’t recover. All my body weight plus the weight of my bags landed on the top of my foot. I’ll say it again. The TOP of my foot. The foot was bent completely under my leg. Imagine walking on the top of your foot instead of the bottom. That was the position I landed. As I crawled across the garage floor to where my cell phone had been flung, my foot limply flopped behind me like a dead fish. Ankle shattered on both the inside and outside of the foot. Nasty. Am a little queasy, actually, reliving it.
The trip itself was so minor, that’s the point I want to get across. A teeny tiny trip of the toes. But the weight of my bags pulled me straight to the ground before I had a chance to recover.
I can’t advise against running late, of course. You don’t always have control of that. I don’t advise against heels as long as you wear them responsibly and know your limits. What would have saved me is an organized bag. A bag like the Kenneth Cole double gusset one I have now. This bag was a Christmas gift and I love it. I am so much better organized and it encourages me to get rid of what I don’t need so that it is never heavier than it needs to be. I have had it for almost 6 years now and it is as nice as it was when I first flung it over my shoulder. I found some good prices on it, as well as some other brief and bag options, at this site called Delsey luggage.
If you are carrying an unorganized load of stuff, take a minute to get your things in order. And if you don’t have a good bag to carry your things in, I recommend you make the investment. It might have saved me months of surgery, wheel chair & crutch use, and lost wages. I spent Christmas that year hopped on vicadin and didn’t even get to pass presents out to my kids. Don’t let that happen to you. 
In the meantime, enjoy this footage of a model falling down on the runway. You will notice that her heels are very high and she is carrying a heavy bucket. Without the bucket she would have probably recovered! If you have a policy of not laughing when people fall, focus your attention on the giggling newscasters who cannot stop laughing.