Top Ten Things I Learned on My Weekend Off

When you’re a parent, you’re always on so the only way to get time off is to escape your family (it sounds much more dramatic than it actually is). This is what I did this past weekend – I escaped my reality and my family and headed north with one of BFFs. She had asked for the weekend off as a birthday present from her husband and I got to tag along for the ride (since I got my lovely birthday Kindle a few months ago – thanks, honey)! To say I was looking forward to the weekend would be an understatement.

Here are ten things I learned on my weekend off:

1. A three-hour car ride without kids seems to go way faster than a 30-minute ride WITH kids. I believe that is a scientific fact.

2. I have lost my ability to nap, even after a relaxing bath with a side of beer. Wah, wah. Poor mommy problems.

3. I’ve also lost my ability to truly sleep in… the moment I heard Tracey stirring downstairs, I was wide awake – the same reaction I have when I hear Jack coughing in the monitor. Kids have ruined me for sound sleeping; even when they are miles away, I sleep with one ear open.

4. I would happily give up seeing a movie in the theater for a margarita and good Mexican food – in the olden days, I would have done both.

5. Getting some Christmas shopping done over the weekend makes me feel very accomplished.

6. Diane Keaton’s character in Because I Said So is SUPER annoying. I hope I am never that kind of overbearing parent.

7. The stepdad-stepson relationship between Liam Neeson and the little boy in Love Actually is so sweet, and so much more interesting to me now that I am a parent. And I was reminded that Hugh Grant is unbelievably dreamy in that movie – you know I love an accent.

8. Tracey and I can handily put away a bottle of wine. And we find each other hilarious when this has happened.

9. When you’re a grown up, you bring sensible things on a weekend away – food like hummus and vegetables, quinoa and curry; bottled water and coffee filters; probiotics and digestive enzymes; three months worth of unread magazines and of course, lots of Diet Coke (that’s never changed).

10. A weekend off can completely replenish my patience levels, lucky for all of the boys in my life.

I’m happy to say I didn’t learn that my husband can handle the kids by himself for the weekend, but that was something I already knew! He’s a great dad and a great partner in our life together! Thanks for the weekend off, my sweet, I appreciate it more than I can say!

This post is linked to Oh Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday.