Alone time.

(Actually taken on the 4th of July - haven't uploaded the vacation pics yet)

Chad and I just took our first ever grown up vacation. It was glorious - to put it mildly.  (We have technically been on one other childless trip, but we were with friends. This was our first time alone!)

We used said trip to mark the celebration of 15 years of marriage.

That's right, 15 years!

How old am I?

Never you mind.

I jotted down notes to myself the entire time, so I could write it all up when I got home. Still planning to do that, but had a thought I needed to capture.

I just got through mediating a heated dispute in which one sister threatened to cause injury and/or death to the other sister's hermit crab.

In that moment, negotiating the great crab peace treaty of 2012,  I realized something really, really important:

While I was on my trip I did not miss my children.

[Insert the audible gasp of mother's everywhere here]

I know - shameful, but really I didn't miss them. I knew they were fine. Better than fine actually, as my mother is the world's most attentive caretaker. I needed the break. And I was having a totally awesome, laugh a minute time with Chad.

It's not like I completely forgot I had kids or anything. We did talk about fun it would be to bring them back and show them all the great stuff we were seeing.

We talked about them and what they need from us to make it through their current challenges.

We talked to them on the phone.

We texted them pictures of slugbugs, ever trying to keep up the points for the parent's team.

We thought about them, we talked about them and I was happy to see them when I got home, but let's be honest, all that is not the same as missing them.

It's easy to get parental burnout. Parenting is constant and super high stakes, what with the responsibility of transforming babies into highly functioning, compassionate, productive members of society and all.

So occasional down time from the demands of parenting is a good thing. And it's not worth feeling guilty about. Just enjoy the 4 days off every 15 years and call it good.

For the record - they didn't miss me either. I know this because they told me so. That admission didn't hurt my feelings in the slightest.