I have to go out of town for three days/nights at the end of this week. I was thinking of writing a post about how hard it is for a mom to travel. Not only do we have the guilt of leaving our children, but the prep work involved can be staggering. I used to write long checklists and schedules whenever I had to go anywhere. 6 p.m. dinner. 8 p.m. bed. Yes, I actually wrote that. I had that great fear that if I forgot to write dinner and bedtime my children wouldn't eat or sleep for three days.(although the last time I left for three days they did not get a bath or brush their teeth in 72 hours, I guess I forgot to put those on the list).
I think theres a big part of the pre-flight checklist that needs to be done, especially for new fathers. Just like I used to leave a long schedule and pages of notes every time I left the kids with my mom for an evening (which I'm sure my mother promptly threw away the minute I walked out the door, but hey, it made ME feel better).
But nearly four years into this parenting gig I think my husband has it down. I give him a lot of credit. I'm not making any lists. I'm not laying out clothes. I'm not preparing frozen meals. I'm not going to text him 37 times a day with "reminders". (ok, maybe I'll text a couple of times)
I'm leaving him to fend for himself.
I'm sure that means that the boys will that they will be late for school every day, dressed head-to-toe in unmatched, ill-fitting clothes. They'll have too much orange juice and not enough vegetables. They will play outside until the darkness comes and then sit around at 10 p.m. watching Cars and eating popcorn in my bed.
And they'll probably have the best time of their lives. A break from the strictness of mommy-routine is probably good for the soul every once in a while and while I cannot condone it while in my presence, I'm ok to sit in my hotel room and pretend that everything is running according to my schedule. And that teeth are getting brushed.
Because, let's face it, daddy's the fun one.
Posted
Mar 24 2009, 10:43 AM
by
Heather