The image continues to linger in our minds. After a long day of working two demanding jobs, slogging with our kids through their issues, and juggling all the other things that make up our lives, I'll come up to a weary and defeated Amy and say, "Hold on until Tahiti!" It works for her.
Look, we love our jobs and our kids. We live a charmed life. The stresses we bear are nothing compared to that of others we know. But as introverts juggling a never-ending cycle of challenging work and young children, we long for a break from it all, and for space to spend just the two of us. Looking forward to going to our new happy place is a wonderful motivator to hang in there, not to mention to make sure we are taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, and financially so that we can actually enjoy such a luxury at some point in our lives.
It begs the question, though: how is it that parenting is one of our greatest joys, and yet one of our greatest joys within that is dreaming about being thousands of miles away from our kids? I trust that other parents are nodding their heads.
1 comment:
Lee- I am nodding yes, to the broad sentiment that I love my one daughter to pieces, but am also looking forward, not to a trip to Tahiti (that's not the thing for these two extroverts), but to the day when I won't have to think about the needs of any animal (we have THREE in the house) or any child.
We have just the ONE, but boy, children "spread out to fill the available space", mentally speaking. And people don't realize that if a child doesn't have another young person in the house to "hang out with" or "play with" or "whatever it is that kids do together that gives you a few minutes of not having to think about what they need right this instant", well-- then you either need to give them a toy/iphone/nintendo/TV to be their "friend" for that space of time, or you have to have already planned (before it happens, you see) for the eventuality of her being bored and already done all her homework, by having someone else take over the job briefly of thinking of that little person's needs.
So yes-- LOVE her. And also can't wait until she's able to care for herself.
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