For the past two years, some of my girlfriends and I have gone on a river tubing adventure right before school starts up. It helps clear our heads, lets us let loose, and just plain rejuvenates us.
I was dying for this outing this year.
And I wasn’t shy about this with my children. Apparently, I mentioned more than a few times how excited I was for our upcoming day trip. The most recent time I mentioned it, my 8-year-old daughter, without looking up from her coloring page, said this:
“Yeah, so you can get away from us.”
Insert a face of unimaginable despair.
I’m a little proud of myself because I bounced back right away and said, “Of course not! I’m excited because I will hang out with my girls, and it’s a fun outing, and I get to relax. And truthfully, I get to feel like a normal grown-up again for a few minutes. I get to be me, instead of always being Mom.”
My daughter didn’t seem perturbed when she made her statement, but it perturbed the heck out of me. I don’t want my children to think I’m just biding my time until the next time I can get away from them. I never want them to think that it’s more fun to be without them. {Real Talk: Sometimes it is, of course, but that’s something they can find out when they’re on this parenthood roller coaster for themselves.}
Now, I have a resolution to make “me time” with my daughter A Thing. It may be difficult, with the school year in full swing, but from time to time we can go out and eat dessert at a restaurant, just the two of us, and we can proclaim that it’s “me time.”
