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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Our..Dare I say it...Future Get-Away

Our kids have never spent a night away from us. Let me re-phrase that. We've never spent a night away from our kids. Notice the emphasis is on the Big Giraffe and me!

When our older son (OS) was younger, he did spend a night here and there with a friend which was wonderful. My mom also came to stay with him a couple times so that we could get away for the weekend. However, once we had two, it just became a lot more complicated, particularly because our friends all had at least two kids.

About a year ago I was talking with a friend who also has two kids and an out-of-state family about what he does to get away with his wife. He said that whenever his family comes to visit, they stay for at least a week so that there's plenty of time to spend with him and his wife and also time so that they can get away and the family can spend time with the kids. When he first told me about it, I thought it was a little..well...rude. I mean his family is presumably coming to see him. He pointed out that his family doesn't see it like that since they enjoy spending time alone with his kids.

I discussed this with a couple of other people that I know with out-of-state families and they said that they do the same thing. Who knew! Apparently not me. They also often extend their trips to visit family by a night or two so that they can stay in a hotel over by their families while their families get stuck babysitting the kids spend quality time with their kids.

I ran this by some family members and they seemed to really like this idea. The Big Giraffe and I were excited. We would finally be able to get away even if it is only to some dinky hotel in Worcester or the Chicago suburbs. However, just like with the best of plans, it just hasn't worked out. I think the longest we've had family visit us has been a couple of nights, and our visits to them do not last any longer. When that visiting time is jam packed with activities, there is little extra time available. It also becomes an added expense when we're already paying to travel to the Midwest at the same time.

We've had a few friends volunteer to watch our kids for us recently. For my birthday I told the Big Giraffe that what I would really like is to be able to go away for a night even if we stay here. There's a lot to be said for getting to stay in your quiet house. There were many emails between the Big Giraffe and my friends, a rumor of a few fights between the Big Giraffe and me, and we now have an official get away weekend! Sally HP will be watching the boys one night and my triathlon training buddy will be taking the boys the next night. Some family friends have also volunteered to watch the boys for...gasp here...several nights in a row so we can go away for our ten year anniversary!

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: It takes a village.

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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.

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