Don’t Deprive…Decompress!

The opportunity presented itself.  How could I resist??  This would be my first leisurely getaway, on my own, just me and my gal pal Leslie.  She offered to fly in from New England and meet me for a long weekend in Nashville, just girls.  Music City, here we come!  It didn’t take long, however, for GUILT to finally rear its ugly head.  For so long, Ernesto and I struggled with the idea of being away from each other or without Maya for short or long periods.  How selfish of us right?!  To think that we would ever want to spend time away from our darling daughter doing ‘child-free’ activities, just for an evening??  Date nights were always challenge as well.  The ‘idea’ looked good on paper and we’d talk about all the cool things we’d do as Saturday night approached, but the anxiety would always set in.  Too many logistics.  Too many potential complications.  Oh and the cost for a sitter?  Gone are the days of $20 for a entire evening of kid watching.  So we would both agree it was not worth the trouble, then pull out the UNO cards for the 3 of us to play.  I recall leaving Maya at KidTowne (our local evening childcare alternative) for a few hours at a time when we would finally muster up the courage to treat ourselves to a date.  It as a great option but the preoccupation that I felt after the first hour of leaving her was just too much to handle.  What if she gets bored?  What if she misses us?  What if she gets hurt?  What if the other kids are mean?  Seriously, someone should have slapped us.  Perhaps this is ‘par for the course’ when you have an only child.  We deprived ourselves of fun weekends away and romantic nights out, yet we knew this resistance was out of love for our precious daughter.  Now, as she gets older and becomes more independent, we have more latitude to take advantage of some time away for ourselves, even if solo with other pals or family.  The benefit of doing it this way is that both of us get quality time with her individually.  That’s a pretty big deal…especially for a mom who typically works 10-hour days and only sees her child maybe an hour or two each night.  So I absolutely encourage Ernesto to catch his favorite band in a nearby city for an evening…or overnight if he wishes.  After all, we’re only 90 minutes from Nashville, 90 minutes from Birmingham and 3 hours from Atlanta!  As for myself, I’ll definitely be planning another girls weekend in the near future.  NOLA anyone??  Thanks for tuning in and don’t forget to visit us at:  Maya & Me Publications