Get Your Bags and RUN!!

A couple of weeks ago I overheard a conversation (okay I was eavesdropping) between a couple of moms in the locker room. These moms must have been mid-fortyish, and seemed pretty with it from my limited standpoint. Then their conversation turned to the subject of going on vacation.

One of the women was telling the other that she was getting ready to go away somewhere warm, and her friend asked her if it was just she and her husband. To which she replied, as though she had cold water poured over her head, "of course not, we're taking the whole family. I just don't understand those people who want to be away from their kids. I personally love spending every waking, painful moment with mine" (okay I might be taking a few liberties here, but you get the tone).

I was so stunned I nearly made my eavesdropping known, but held back, due to the fact that I was hiding out in the washroom just to listen in. "Perfect Mom" then went on to say that since she and her husband "Poor Pitiful Guy" had children, they had never spent one night away from them....EVER. Are you kidding me? No dirty filthy hotel sex, EVER?? Geesh and I thought we were boring. Well, her reasoning was that if one wants to have children why would they need to be away from them? Her friend, just nodded her poor simple little head, and never challenged this notion. WOW!

Well let me tell you my friends I both NEED and WANT time away from my offspring. In fact when the chance arises I am giddy, tingly with excitement. I usually have an upset stomach and diarrhea due to the thrill, a few days prior to my launch.

I remember one year a friend and I had gone away, we decided to leave the night before our original planned departure, instead of leaving early the next morning. Well, we didn't arrive until very late, after midnight in fact. We grabbed out bags out of the car, checked into our room, and proceeded to crawl into our very own queen-sized beds, mowing down chips watching crap on t.v., giggling like we'd never been alone before. There is just something about the way that kind of freedom from your children, and your life makes you feel.

I cherish those times; when I can be a girl again, a fun, silly, sleeping late, staying up later kind of girl. We need those times away with friends and ourselves, to reconnect with who we once were. It feels good to know I can do this, that my loved ones support me doing it.

I love sitting cross legged on a bed reading trashy magazines, putting on make-up and acting as though I am a teenager again It feels bloody good to take care of just me for a few days here and there. To forget that someone needs something from me, and I can sit back and do nothing for a change.

Maybe there really are those "Perfect Moms" out there who never need or want time for themselves, away from their families, sadly, no, gladly I am not one of them. I look forward to the next parcel of time where I get to "pack my bags and run"!!