One week.
My kids are leaving me for one whole week.
This summer, both of my boys are going to summer camp on Catalina Island for ONE WEEK.
Both of them.
Gone.
As in…not here.
G.O.N.E.
Sure at first I worried how would I survive a week without the laundry, the sport practices, the tripping on roller blades, the $500 trips to the grocery store my precious babies. So I asked the camp lady crazy-helicopter-mom questions like ‘Can I visit the camp during the week?’ and ‘Can the boys use their cell phone to call me at bedtime?’….all questions I am sure she has heard before. The answers came quick and swift; NO and NO. But were followed with “your boys will be so busy spear fishing, sailing and flirting with girls they won’t have time to miss you”.
Um, yeah well that is great camp lady….great. THEY will be SO BUSY they won’t miss ME.
But what about ME camp lady?
What about ME missing THEM?
And then she nonchalantly said it…
“Sounds like a great time for you to take a vacation maybe!”
WHAT?!!!!?
Then from that moment on, I have taken about 50 vacations in my mind. I have fantasized every possible scenario for the week-without-children.
In my mind I went to Atlanta to hang out with Soliloquy. I went up to San Fran to sleep in my friend Susan’s cashmere comforter guest house for 24 hours straight and then on to Foolery’s to herd cattle in heels. I went with TheHusband to Hawaii for our now 12 year delayed honeymoon. I went on a photographing odyssey with my mom to Mexico. Vegas. Oh Vegas. Heck, one day I went to Machu Picchu in Peru.
In my mind, I have used the week-without-children a hundred times over.
Then the fantasies got practical:
I painted all the trim and doors in the house. I re-did the kids rooms. Cleaned out all the closets. Re-did the garage. I painted the tiki-hut in the backyard. Installed the new bathroom lights. Installed new dining room lights. Installed ALL NEW LIGHTS. I worked out every day and become a hottie-mom by the time the kids returned. I finished writing my book.
After living out all these options in my mind, I am exhausted. But I did finally settle on what I was going to do with my week….
NOTHING.
I plan on doing nothing.
Just staying home and drinking heavily missing my babies.
well, maybe….I still have 4 months to think it over….
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
That sounds lovely. I’m glad you finally came to your senses. :-)
I vote for you re-doing the kids’ rooms. I went to camp once when I was a kid (only once). My parents re-did my room while I was gone and to this day it’s one of my most favorite memories. I came home to WHITE furniture that had a corner desk. WOW- I felt like I finally mattered to my mom since she would always spend money and time on everyone else in the family as well as every other room in the house so when she did MY room, it was huge to me. Seems a little silly but that’s truly how I felt.
Mini brain vacations are the best. Why is it that they always start real and then turn into life to-do lists? Excited to see what actually happens when the mice are away :)
So. Jealous.
I still have a few years left before I can start to take these sorts of mini-mental vacations…but don’t think I’m not already planning it all out!
I am interrupting your dream with a dose of reality. While you say you’ll do nothing, I am promise you that will DRAG your ass out to Happy Hour at some point and FORCE drinks down your throat. Like the guy with a whistle and bottle of tequila in TJ! Isn’t that what all moms do when their kids are away? Drink lots?
DH can pick up my kiddos from daycare.
I’m with Pam! I’ll meet you guys at happy hour. Live it up! Have fun!
I have no doubt that you’ll be the busiest at nothing that the world has ever seen. Raising an imaginary martini glass in your direction!
My in-laws take our three kids every summer for a week!! I know, unbelievable.
This has been going on for three years now. But at first I didn’t like the idea. I thought I would miss them too much.
My wife just shakes her head at my sentimentality. Sometimes roles are reversed at our house.
What really happened? After the initial shock of no shoes or toys to trip over, no meals to cook, no dishes to clean, no extra laundry to do, I found myself skipping around the house like I was in my own little amusement park.
I never knew how productive I could be. And I could have easily stretched it to two weeks!
I’m with Sharon pull a “While You Were Out” I did when my son was 8 (check out the paint job I did while he was at camp… http://www.themodchik.com/2010/03/room-swap-part/) he LOVED it… felt so connected to that room and I bet your boys would too!
I envy you.. I need to start looking at camps.
WRONG. FRICKING. ANSWER.
Come to Atlanta and hang with Soliloquy!!
Please?
My doorstep misses you!
(Can you tell how pathetically behind I am in my reader??)