A strange thing happened today on my way to crazy.
Tommy and Brendan went to play up the street at a friends’ house after lunch. Husband and I decided to use the time to do some “house projects” that had been piling up: painting the crown molding that had been installed well before Christmas, filling holes on the risers of the stairs where the nails from the old carpet used to be, cleaning up my office and organizing the paperwork for our taxes. After about 90 minutes, another neighbor called to say he was going to bring his kids, our kids and the neighbors’ kids to play indoor miniature golf and would we be OK with that?
OK with that? Um, hello! As my husband so eloquently put it, “We usually have to pay teenage girls good money to take our kids!”
Husband and I continued our housework, content to not have to worry that someone would spill the paint or step in it when we weren’t looking. After another two hours, our neighbor called back again. “Hey, the kids want to go back to our house, order up pizzas, and watch a movie. Are you OK with that? Want to pick them up around 7:30?”
OK with that? Again, we usually have to pay people good money just to have a couple of hours of kid-free time. If we want to go to Lowe’s to find new light fixtures, we hire a babysitter. If one of us is traveling on business, we hire a babysitter. If there’s a wake or funeral to attend half-way across the state, we call a babysitter. And at $10 an hour, it adds up, fast.
When we attend neighborhood parties and other couples tell us their kids are “sleeping at Grandma’s” we immediately turn green with envy. For seven years we have barely known an overnight away without the kids. In fact, I can count the overnights on one hand. This week my sister-in-law and her husband are on a week-long ski vacation. Alone. The kids? Splitting their time between Grandma’s and Nana’s house. We can only imagine how that feels and yet we’re not one bit jealous (yah, right!)
For hours today our kids have been out of our house while we have been here, alone. It was an unexpected surprise and one that left us feeling so incredibly grateful. Sometimes a little break is all it takes.Honesty, I can not remember the last time my husband and I were both here in this house together. Alone.
As we enjoyed our relaxing dinner (with Pandora Jazz radio playing in the background), I lifted my wine glass and said, “So this is what it is like…”
Then we clinked our glasses and toasted the neighbor who today gave us the gift of time and kid-free space. How sweet it is.
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8 Responses to So This Is What It’s Like…
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AWESOME. Vent: at this very moment, as I scramble madly through my list of friends and babysitters to try to find someone to watch my little guy for just a few hours on my husband’s birthday, and finding not one person to assist, I read the above with sheer delight for you two!! Yes, an overnight for the two of us, which we’ve done ONCE in the last five years, cost us $200+ for the babysitter, plus the hotel et al!! Sigh. Enjoy every second and give those neighbors a nice bottle of wine…
You see, I am jealous of you. Where I live the baby sitters start at 15 dollars/h and do not come for less than 4h. Our parents are in Europe, so no chace of a weekend alone.
Brilliant……Jealous, most definitely!
I’m so not moving away from our free babysitters! I toy with the idea but after reading that… Um no!
I’d babysit for you if we didn’t live so far away! If you ever come to south dakota you can drop the kids off!
That’s got to be a great feeling!
My husband and I were sharing an ipod last week and he decided he should listen to these Manic Mommies that I talk about and whose Escape I went on. Of course he picked the Sex Therapist episode. Since I listened to it so recently, I started laughing when I heard you had that time alone, at home without the kids…finally you had time to take some of her “naked” advice!
Teresa, the sad thing is we chose to paint the molding. Sigh.
Yes sistah I hear ya! So glad you got such a nice free day! We have one reliable babysitter, but are often too cheap to get her. One set of parents are non-existant and the others are in a different state and not so useful to begin with. Plus my boys are crazy. All of my friends ask, why can’t your parents take care of them for a weekend, to be honest, I don’t trust them. And, it seems that every neighbor around us has someone else to rely on, are friends with, can drop their kids off to, except US!! You got lucky–don’t forget to reciprocate so they’ll do it again. Glad we’re not the only ones in this position.
Glad you had some time away from the boys! We are in a similar situation-no family nearby. We have had ONE overnight since having our son (he is 4), thanks to a GREAT friend! We have finally (fingers crossed) found a reliable babysitter. And, I second Andrea’s comment-be sure to reciprocate at some point so they’ll do it again!