As we (my awesome Baby Center mommies group) approach or have reached the one year mark… More and more of us are leaving our little ones for the first time over night. Some taking a quick overnight visit for work, some a romantic weekend away… Then there are the brave (or idiotic) few who decide to wait until they’re leaving the country for a week to be apart from their little bucket of sunshine for the first time.
Yes. The latter was me. No. I do not know what I was thinking. There were so many different ways that I could have approached this. I could have known that 8 days away from my little girl was going to make me miserable. I could have simply chosen to spend one or two nights away before taking my voyage to Europe. Ooooh the things I could have done differently.
I will tell you that I made sure my house was as prepared as any home could be for the mommy to be gone for 8 whole days. For starters I did the easy thing… I recorded the song I sing to her at every nap and bed time on my husband’s phone as well as a few Dr. Seuss books to include “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?” and a few other of my personal favorites.
But what were they going to do for food? I thought about this long and hard and I have to warn you, after reading this… you’re going to think I’m even more neurotic than you already do. And that is something that I am okay with.
I prepped, cooked and froze every meal that my daughter would need while I was gone. I even included enough for the person responsible for feeding her. Wasn’t that sweet of me? Now let’s touch briefly on the why. For starters, the wonderful, charming 22 year old who was watching her during the day cannot brown ground beef. Yes, I said it. The one time I watched her do it (and eat it, no less) was probably one of the toughest experiences I have ever had with her. She burnt it to a crisp. It. Was. Gross. And secondly well, if it were up to my husband? They’d have eaten a rotation of McDonald’s, Hot Dogs & Frozen pizzas.
So I bit the bullet and cooked for 3 straight days. I made everything from mini quiches and pancake bites (filled with sausage) to chicken parmesan, chicken and green bean casserole and spaghetti and meatballs. The toughest thing I asked of them was to boil a pot of pasta. Literally. You can imagine my displeasure when after all of that I came home to an absolutely trashed home and a child with a giant scab on her knee from some glass that had somehow made it’s way from the back yard into our dining room.
My point? I guess it’s just this… We all have to do it at some point. Based on the type of person that you are, you know how much prepping you need to do in advance (sure, I could have let her eat chicken nuggets, hot dogs & pizza for 8 days) and as much as it sucks, we all have to get it over with at some point. I promise you that it’s harder on us than it is on them and while we may want to talk to them constantly, out of sight out of mind is definitely the right approach to this.
Good luck, ladies.
