A Day of Just Emily

Saturday was such a fun day. I spent four hours of just being me. Joey and I participated in Parents Night Out today for the first time since Isla was born. If you don't know parents night out is a great program offered on base at Peterson that gives Parents childcare for 4 hours on a Friday or Saturday for a pretty good rate ($20.00). Great program I would totally look into it if you haven't already. Don't get me wrong Isla is the most amazing, sweetest baby you will ever meet, but sometimes it is nice to have that break to just be me again if only for a few hours. A few hours where you aren't thinking about mommy things like when was the last time you changed her diaper or fed her how long much longer until nap time. I think as parents the older our children get the more separation anxiety we get and no I am not only talking about the kids. As parents leaving our kids becomes almost like working out for those non working out types like me. You start to talk yourself out of doing it even though you a) need to do it for your own well being and b) you will feel great afterwards. You will rationalize a million other things you could be doing and you put yourself on the back burner. I swore before we had Isla I didn't want to be one of those couples who never went out on their own anymore once they had kids. I am not talking about going out every night of the weekend, but once a month just to reconnect as you instead of mom and dad. I never realized how hard it would be to get to the point of being able to go out again. I think it is especially hard for all parents to be able to recognize that leaving your kids for a few hours will not de-thrown you as mother or father of the year, but it is especially hard for people who live away from family. Your family is more likely to kick you out of the house for a date night rather than having to find that motivation on your own.

So for our big day out we went to go see Prince of Persia and ate dinner at Chili's :) The movie was good and the dinner was ok, but to be just me for a few hours was priceless :) After going out today we made a commitment to each other that no matter what Isla, work, school, working out, we will make time to just be Joey and Emily once a month. I think it is one of the many things I want to do to make sure that as we grow as parents we are still able to keep a part of ourselves.