Working parents all over the world face the same dilemma at some point or another – my job, or my kids. There are the little moments, be on that conference call or make it home for dinner. And then there are the big moments, like the one that Javier “Chicharo” Hernandez faced.
Hernandez, manager of the reserve side of Chivas, one of the biggest and most important soccer clubs in Mexico, has given up his job in order to travel to South Africa this summer and watch his son play in the world cup. He asked for leave to make the trip, but the Chivas institution refused. So, 11 days ago, he quit.
“I asked for permission to go to the World Cup, and they didn’t allow me,” Hernandez told reporters. [...]
“I had to think about it for two days with my family and kids and I made the decision to quit because I want to go to the World Cup and see my kid play. Work is secondary.”
Giving up a much loved, and extremely difficult to land, job is no simple matter. But, for Hernandez, his son being in the World Cup was a once in a lifetime moment he just couldn’t miss.
“It was difficult, but in the end one is not eternal,” he noted to reporters.
“Institutions remain for lives and one doesn’t. Moments from your life is what makes you take that decision. I understand the institution and that no one is above it, but one is also just here in passing.”
