The Point of No Return

I find one of the perks of our job is the skills we gain from being a recruiter often overlap to our personal lives. Recently, I have had several runs with what I call ‘The Point of No Return’. It is the point where you have been pushed so far – you can NOT and will NOT take anymore and there is no coming back. The thousands of times I have had this happen to me in the business world have frankly made me pretty good at hitting ‘The Point of No Return’ and made for a fairly interesting story this past month. In January, we like the rest of the country experienced severe weather. I was driving my kids to school on one of our dreary January mornings. It was a white out snow storm and the roads were a sheet of ice. My boys were in the back seat and decide to pick this very time to begin a major knock down drag out. Punches are flying, boots are off and lunch boxes are being used as weapons. (This unfortunately is not the first time this had happened. For some reason the car had become their battleground. I had talked with them multiple times about the dangers of fighting in the car, especially when the roads were bad.) I of course raised my voice in panic, trying to get them to stop fighting and as I did so a water bottle hit the side of my head. I had officially hit ‘The Point of No Return’. I kept my focus, hands on the wheel and calmly said: “You obviously will not listen to me about the dangers of fighting in the car, perhaps you will listen to the COPS.” Instead of turning left to go to school I turned right and headed straight for the police station. You should of then heard what was coming from the back of my car – “Mom … no … we are soooo sorry … NOOO, Mom don’t go to the cops, we will be good we promise Mom … Mom stop … Mom I have a test, I can’t be late to school … Mom NOOOO, please Mom …. NOOO.” I did not say a word, parked next to 3 police cars, locked the little hoodlums in the car and marched right in to the police station. As I entered the building I saw 2 stunning police officers, smiled and said: “Hi – do you remember a few years ago, the story in the news about that mother whose children were fighting in the car, she got so fed up with them she left them on the side of the road. Well, I would never leave my children on the side of the road but I certainly know where that woman’s mind went. Would you mind horribly going and scaring the hell out of my children?” And off those 2 police officers went. I am not exactly sure what was said to my little guys but my car has been a sanctuary ever since.