Last week, I hit my breaking point. Nine weeks of continual family togetherness is not for me. I feel smothered. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys … I just don’t want to be with them 24/7. Frankly, I don’t want to be with anyone that much. Not my husband, not my kids, not even my best girlfriends. I need my space. I need time to decompress and recompose myself. I need time to be alone.
Apart from a few weeks of day camp, the boys and I have spent nearly every day and night together. Tensions have started to run high and tolerances low. But not this week. This week I got a break because my kids have been in New York with their grandparents, attending a basketball camp. Yes, that’s right. No kids for six whole days … JACKPOT!
You’d think that a kid-less week would mean that I went on a romantic vacation with my husband or at least partied every night and slept in the next day. Not quite. Here’s the reality of it: Not having kids home for six days meant that the house was quieter, the grocery bill was smaller and the laundry was less daunting. It meant I could go to the gym each morning and not have to rush home. It meant I could talk on the telephone with my girlfriends without being interrupted. It meant I could write on my own schedule, not someone else’s. It meant I could get shit done (like refinish a dresser and reorganize my closet). It meant six consecutive dates with my husband (nothing fancy, but exactly what we needed). It meant I could recharge, recenter and refocus myself … and just be.
I am forever grateful to my wonderful parents for giving me this week-long break. They are awesome and probably in need of their own vacation right about now. That said, I selfishly wish I had six more days because these past six flew by! But I will be happy to see my boys tomorrow … I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Maybe next year if we’re lucky enough for my parents to take the boys again for a week, I’ll plan ahead and book a romantic couples vacation. Or maybe not. As a mom, just having time to myself is a vacation.
Now let’s see if we can make it through the final two weeks of summer before school starts.
– LJDT
