I’m convinced that I’m married to the most wonderful man there is. A night at a hotel without children was his gift to me as a “push present” for baby 4. If you’ve never heard of a “push present,” it’s a gift one gets for literally pushing out one’s own child. Taking pictures and writing about my night out was purely for entertainment purposes; as a blogger with over 40,000 photos stored on my phone, this is what I do for fun.
Our old house had a basement bedroom that I could use as a hideout. My husband has an office in one of the bedrooms (which shares a wall with the kids’ room, where one kid likes to tap his feet through the wall and the crib), there are a lot of windows, and the basement is unfinished, so it’s not the kind of place I’d want to sleep in.
So when my husband told me “I’ve booked you an overnight stay at a hotel as well as an appointment at the spa” I was overcome with emotion. In his words, all I needed to do was unwind and try to get some shut-eye (and really try to relax). The following is an account of my day:
1.At check-in, I was given a cocktail!
2.My kids would not eat the steak, rare, with greens and wings that I ordered from room service. 2.
3.Aside from that, I watched a lot of television (Billions!) and listened to music.
4.As a mother of two young children, I find it difficult to keep up with my daily journaling because of the constant interruptions from my family members.
5.The first thing I did after turning on my computer was to try and catch up on email, but I quickly realised that wasn’t relaxing at all.
6.In the sixth hour, I painted my nails and took a long soak in the tub with a bath bomb I’d packed.
7. I slept, but woke up a lot because of the hotel noises and my body’s acclimatisation to waking up.
8.When the masseuse didn’t say anything before and after the massage, I had a good laugh.
After about an hour, I started to miss the kids and Nick terribly. Even though I was a little bored, it was nice to be free of the responsibility of caring for children or cleaning up after them for a night…and quiet!!
I left Friday night and returned before lunch on Saturday. Even though it wasn’t even a full 24 hours, I returned home feeling recharged, refreshed, and grateful. The best gift for any mom is a night away, and I can’t stress this enough to all the men out there: make sure to check their schedules before making any plans.
