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Send that dude packing…
Blow me away; I survived my husband’s business trip last week.
Survival defined as 1)keeping my children alive and mostly fed, while 2)significantly limiting the mental explicatives that flew when my husband called and announced that the whole of Germany’s airline pilots were going on strike, thus potentially delaying his return home by 3 days. Excellent.
We made it through. While it would be so easy to focus all of the moments I earned my Mom of the Year award a million times over, it would be wrong if I didn’t come clean and admit the truth; I actually enjoyed parts of his trip.
I know; maybe you’d better sit down for this very uncharacteristic announcement?
But it was kind of boss to just give up one day at 12noon and tell the kids we were going for an ice cream lunch. Plus, I felt like a genius mom for sitting at the booth farthest away from the spinny Children’s Miracle Network coin slot thing and only giving them one coin at a time so they kept having to run back and forth to get a new coin. Energy burn and supporting a worthy cause? Go me. I only cringed in minimal shame when my son asked me if he could have a marshmallow for dessert when he got home. And I let him.
Obviously, the catching up on a month of Revenge after I stashed the kiddos in bed.
Delighting in my cheap pink moscato wine without the judgemental eyebrows of my booze snob husband? Pass the bottle.
The minor incident one morning when I decided to wake early, be productive and order some undies for my daughter and a new bra for myself using Kohls’ coupons, ended up getting wildly lost in online intimate wear for 2 hrs. and then spent $400 (with plans to return most). I got confused, panicky, and just ordered everything. Seriously, if you want a bra from Kohls, don’t bother–it’s probably sitting in its package in the return pile in my kitchen. That said, if my husband had checked our credit card bill from Austria, he may have given up on me and decided not to come home. That said, it was wicked fun to be stupid and not have anyone there to notice.
…we’ve got this!
Making a shrimp dinner for the first time in ever because my husband doesn’t eat seafood. Yes, tragic, tragic circumstances in which to conduct a marriage.
Telling the kids they can sleep in the same room on the floor in their sleeping bags because, let’s be honest–I don’t care where the heck they crash, just so long as they are no longer talking to me.
The very real and very empowering realization that my dear friend predicted–I may be stronger than I think and not need my husband for the day-to-day as much as I think I do.
The very sweet and true fact while I can do it alone, I’d much rather him be here because I like my husband and enjoying having him around–after getting in my full course of Revenge and several stupid late-night hours of playing mindless word games on my Kindle, that is.
So his next business trip? It might not totally suck either.
***Disclaimer to all friends–I will still most likely annoyingly whine before, during, and after my husband’s next business trip. So sorry. xo***
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WhenCrazyMeetsExhaustion says
You can whine all you want, lady! “As long as they’re no longer talking to me,” killed me!! xo
Meredith says
Every mama’s dream-come-true, right?
Lori Wescott says
You SO have the right to invoke whine privileges when and if the husband is out of town… And when he’s at home!! Brantley isn’t a booze snob, but he doesn’t drink (eye roll) and he’s like the wine police. I get mad when people say, “You should never drink alone,” because if I followed that rule I’d never get to drink. Mad respect, girlfriend. xoxo
Meredith says
The wine police suck–I like you rules, love 🙂
Christian at Point Counter-Point Point Point says
Is you daughter pretending to be Spiderman in that picture? If you say no I’m going to have to disagree with you.
Meredith says
Let’s just go with that–makes her seem more boss than she already is.
Chris Carter says
You DID IT!!! YAY!! And hooray for cheap wine and 400 bucks worth of bras!!! And for breaking all the rules!! I used to do similar stuff when hubs was away and I had my littles… I didn’t care WHAT we ate, or did actually… it was a bit liberating to run the house any way I wanted. And who really cares?
I always had a hard time ‘re-engaging- when hubs came back, like he was kind of in the way of my ‘happy place’ and crowded up the schedule and the bathroom and the kitchen. But- after some days of acclamation, all was well in the Carter house. NOT. TRUE. All was NEVER well- the kids were always too sick and I was constantly in crisis with one of them… but, another story for another day. lol\
I am SO glad you survived and actually didn’t mind it much at all. Good for YOU!!!!
Meredith says
I love your honesty. In truth, I’m guessing we’ll all “fully recover” from this business trip in about 20 yrs. 😉 xoxo.