I recently followed a link, from twitter or Facebook (who knows), and read with interest, this article on the Huffington Post, entitled Divorce’s Dirty Little Secret. Go read it – then come back!

I knew this secret already. I have friends who are single parents and I fully admit that when they have their time to themselves, when they don’t have custody of the kids, whether that’s a week or a weekend or a summer, I have very large pangs of envy. The single parents I know are the people having the best time extra-curricular-ly. On their free time, that is. What I also know, is that when it’s not their free time? They are the only parent. They don’t get to say, oh honey, I have a headache, bathe the kids for me. They just have to do what they have to do. There are clearly many hardships to being a single parent.

Obviously, divorce or relationship breakdown of any kind is traumatic and not what we wish for. (Well, most days of the week. I fully admit to wishing for it last Tuesday, you bastard.) I digress! The point is? Time away from the family, every so often, is rejuvenating. It’s needed. It’s replenishing.

Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of dividing and conquering. Like I’ll take the kids for a few hours, and then I get my few hours paid back to me, even if it just means food shopping or cleaning the kitchen (blissful). Mark recently took the kids for their first skiing lesson, and they were out most of a day. I admit I am looking forward to when they go again, no matter what I do with the time. Honestly, many things are easier when they’re not around. Like cooking and cleaning. Obviously there is a lot of joy when they ARE around – but they are still in need of some supervision and seek interaction and attention. They can still get into an awful lot of trouble…

But I am about to get replenished and rejuvenated. I hope. Like I did 2 years ago, I’m about to get 16 days to myself. Mark and the boys are headed to the UK to visit his family. I could have gone, but for a couple of reasons, I decided not to. Perhaps I’ll take them on our own vacation sometime this summer, without Mark.

In the mean time? My plan is 16 days of self-care, in many different forms. There will be cleaning, cooking, movie-watching at the cinema by myself, a weekend trip shopping in the States with my parents, maybe a sleepover, some yoga, and hopefully, just hopefully, a little less stress and responsibility. I really, really can’t wait. I will miss them. But I can’t wait.

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On a totally different note, there’s a review and giveaway over here right now for EZ Sox, socks (for little kids) that have handles. Sounds crazy. Works well. Check it out.

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