It's official: I survived five days as a single parent.I'd even say I thrived as the children and I played at my happy place (R.E.I.), threw rocks into the Platte River, indulged in Little Man Ice Cream, played at the playground, went on daily bike rides, rolled down the hill at Confluence Park, went to a St. Patrick's Day Parade, saw Planet 51, attended church, made a cake in our Easy-Bake Oven, roller-bladed and picnicked in Washington Park, ate at Cafe Rio, frolicked at drop-in gymnastics and shopped. A lot.
Evidently, I have an aversion to being home when my husband is gone.
Oh wait. I'm always like that.
And where was the Lord of the Gourds? He was in Niagara at a giant pumpkin-growing convention.
Yes, you heard correctly. His people meet annually to discuss, welp growing giant pumpkins.
And evidently other exciting things such as "watching the youngest grower to ever receive an Orange Jacket take her place in history with her NEW WORLD RECORD Pumpkin."
This is exciting stuff, people.
I encouraged Jamie to go. Mostly because I knew he'd have a blast and partly because I felt guilty about how much I've been traveling. We now have a 12-day break before we head back to Utah to visit family and ski Park City Mountain Resort for Spring Break.
That's a lot of travel, even for a family travel writer.
This is the first time Jamie and I have had back-to-back trips without each other and it's been tough. While we generally don't keep score in our marriage, we kind of did this time around.
"Jamie, I think you owe me after leaving me alone for five days with the kids."
"Are you kidding me? What about the 10 days you were gone for the Olympics?""
"Your mom was here for eight of those days. On the others, I arranged play dates."
"And your trip to Park City last week? You were gone for 3.5 days."
"The kids were in school for part of it, I coordinated two play dates and your sister Lisa took the kids for most of Saturday."
"That still leaves a lot of hours. You were gone a total of 13.5 days and I was only out of town for five."
Bottom line is he is probably right but who's counting?
Oh wait. Evidently, we are.
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17 Comments:
Do you two ever slow down??? Or should I say you four? All of you are on the go. But I LOVE IT.
Hope you have a great Spring Break.
What a life of adventure!
And BTW, I totally think you are right about being 'owed' time... if he's got the kids but they're out on play dates/ with grandma/ with auntie/ at school then you are in the red, honey, and you are OWED!! ;)
Safe travels....
The weather has been so gloriously beautiful that we've been fully enjoying it. This weekend? Snow.
Sometimes a girl just has to keep score.
You amaze me. I just had to mention that...
We had a very similar conversation about date nights. And, "No," ward parties do not count as dates.
Okay, can I say JEALOUS???? Since my kids were born 4.5 years ago I have gone on one girls weekend trip EVER. The husband travels for work and complains about it, but I feel like screaming-do you know what I would do to wake up a few mornings a year without hungry mouths to feed? to take a shower that lasts more then 32 seconds? To go down to the little coffee shop and grab a latte and a paper? To sit in my "lonely" hotel room at night and watch HBO and order room service??? Oh man. JEALOUS.
I am usually on the losing end of the score card when it comes to time away from the kids (that sounds really bad, perhaps I am the winner b/c I spend more time with the kids???) Anyhow, I am about to leave to go to a conference for 6 days, I'll be home for 4 then leave for another 4 days. I'm FREAKING out! I have never been away from my kids for that long. Any advice? I am going to budget for a cleaning lady to deal with the disaster zone before I get back, but I'm still stressed. Help!
It has definitely been an adjustment for us. Like many of you, I was the SAHM for the first several years of my children's lives and sat back while my husband went on all his business trips.
My best advice? Solicit Grandma to help. Problem is, ours moved out-of-state so we had to fly her in. :-)
Equality is found in balance!
stop counting. You'll both be happier. :-)
Amen to that!
As long as the scoreboard always shows you both with the gold (rings), it's all good.
And don't forget that you might get a pumpkin pie out of it.
I know when I go out of town, The hubby gets a scaled down version of real life- which is sounds like Jamie got also- So- our days home alone, non scaled down count for way more than one to one ratio.
Just saying.
You guys make me tired just reading about all your travels.
Sounds like a fun week.
P.S. I doesn't matter how you count it. The woman always wins. :o)
Wow. You guys do travel alot. I am jealous.
Now, you know that being a single mom isn't that bad....ok if you get breaks once in a while. :)
You guys continue to crack me up!
Five days alone with the children would give me the shakes. Or the hives. And probably a migraine.
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