Mental Health Days

I'm sure you've all heard of taking the "Mental Health Day". It's one of those days when you HAVE to call in sick even though you're not quite sick, but you would feel cheated if you took a vacation day.  One of those days when work has you so completely exhausted, brain damaged, tired, frustrated ________________________(fill in blank with other appropriate word).

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I work for my father. I'm the marketing coordinator for his law firm. (yesterday's post had NOTHING to do with him btw) Anyway, so every time I call in sick, I either get a call from my mother or father asking what's wrong with me. See, my dad doesn't understand the whole "Mental Health Day" because I'm pretty sure he has 4,394,398 sick days racked up, probably never having taken a sick day in his entire life. So beyond saying, "my brain hurts" I just have to say, "I don't feel good." and leave it at that, which is hard because then there are usually a few probing questions about what EXACTLY is wrong, is it my head, my stomach, muscle or joint pain, flu, cold, sinus infection...the trials and tribulations of being the daughter of a personal injury attorney.

Some days the MHD's are used to catch up with work (not day job work, writing/revising/marketing work). Sometimes I need them to catch up on sleep. Sometimes, especially if I forget to take my meds for a couple days, I need a real MHD. haha, *cough* though that's happened a couple times, I try NOT to let that happen.

I admit this habit has rubbed off on my kids a bit. Thing Two is at home right now having an MHD. She's catching up on homework, practicing for a big choir concert, and doing some cleaning in the house. I think it's fine. She doesn't miss that much school and she's a good kid. She knows she's not to play xbox, be on the computer unless it's for homework, or watch TV (crap, I think I forgot to tell her about TV, need to make a call).

Anyway, I think we're all entitled to a Mental Health Day every so often. In fact, I think it should be added to our benefits on top of our vacation and sick leave.  I don't think six a year would kill an employer, do you? Go to your union reps and your office managers now and ask for, no demand your MHD! Your sanity depends on it.