Queen Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI, met with his prime minister, Winston Churchill, every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. So you might think that when his daughter took over in 1952, she would have continued the tradition. Elizabeth was, after all, a traditionalist.
But she didn’t. At that time, Queen Elizabeth had two young children, and every parent knows that 5:30 p.m. is dinnertime, knocking on bedtime. To avoid the painful question “Why isn’t Mummy going to play with us tonight?” her biographer writes, Queen Elizabeth “moved the audience to 6:30, which allowed her to go to the nursery to join in their nightly bath and tuck them into bed before discussing matters of state with Winston Churchill.”
The point is: whatever your children’s ages, you have to be ready to make adjustments. Whatever your job is, it can and must be adjusted around what we all know is our most important job. If the queen can put off Winston Churchill for an hour, you can reschedule that conference call.
Family comes first. Before business . . . even the business of state.