Striking a balance - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Late last week, I saw the great journalist Isobel Yeung post on social media about a clash in her calendar. A new mother, Yeung had a weaning session scheduled with her local healthcare provider, followed by the 45th annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. There, she and her team were twice nominated in the Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage category for two pieces for the since-imploded Vice News for work in Iran and Russia, respectively.

 

While I would never dream of comparing myself to the great Yeung, one of the absolute best journalists working in the world right now, I too had a moment of professional triumph clash with parental, say, responsibility last week when Publisher Deb Sholdice sent me the news that an editorial I had written won a Canadian Community Newspaper Award. I was lying on the couch alone as Jess worked with Tallulah on her bedtime routine (due to space constraints, usually one parent is more than enough in there and that night Tallulah chose Jess) when I received the e-mail. 

 

What great news! Boy, was I excited to share this with my wife and daughter (my son was asleep though it’s unlikely he’d understand me even if he happened to be awake). Editorial writing is something in which I take great pride. Starting my career with this respected publication, it was the great Keith Roulston who wrote its editorials and that remained the case until just a few years ago, so, winning an award for writing an editorial was an honour I associated with Keith, who had won them before. The most seasoned, accomplished and intelligent journalists write editorials for their papers, and here I was, among Canada’s best.

 

I rose from the couch and was on my way to the bathroom when Jess called, panicked, and asked for a bucket, thinking our girl was going to be sick. She was right and there I was, on my knees, holding a small container, catching some, but not all, of my daughter’s vomit. We both then sprung into action as I discarded what was in the bucket and cleaned what didn’t make it, sanitizing everything and ensuring that no surface was left unclean. Meanwhile, Jess comforted Tallulah and ran her a bath - her second in an hour, since she had just finished having one when she took ill - and went through the entire bedtime routine again.
Not until much later that night did I have the chance to tell Jess about the win, only after we were both ourselves exhausted and we had put our exhausted daughter to sleep finally.

 

I found it to be a rather chaotic and dramatic collision of my personal and professional lives. And yet, when you endeavour to lead both, giving each their due time in the course of your day, these types of intersections are bound to occur.

 

So, thanks to those who have reached out to congratulate me on the award. As I said, it feels like an honour that really accomplished writers might win, so, to be included among such company is truly humbling. In those congratulations, I should point out, there was no mention of my fathering skills or ability to comfort my sick daughter. Hopefully this will be rectified in the coming weeks and I’ll be suitably congratulated for both.

 

And I suppose if I’m looking for silly congratulations, I should hand some out myself. Thanks to North Huron Council for its earnest consideration of decimating Blyth’s recreational opportunities. If they don’t do their job, I guess it’s tough for me to do mine. My dad, a 33-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, used to say something similar: without criminals, he wouldn’t have a job.