When Jamie and I booked our cruise last year, I was exceedingly pregnant, swollen, miserable and ready for a break from the children. Particularly a difficult thing because one was still inside of me.
Fast-forward several months. We leave for our cruise on Saturday and I am having major anxieties about leaving them. Well, more particularly about leaving Bode because Haddie’s first full sentence was, after all, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” She has has been nothing but forthcoming over her preference to Grandma so leaving her has never been an issue.
But then there’s my mama’s boy. After having such an independent, spirited daughter, I secretly longed for another kid who pretended to like me. At least sometimes. I got him in Bode. And while it’s often extremely endearing, there are other moments when it’s NotSoMuch. Like when I dare to do the unthinkable i.e. put him down so I can actually wipe myself.
His latest illness has made him transcend cuddly to downright clingy. I don’t fault him for that but now that he has finally turned the corner, I’m left with a kid who thinks he can’t be away from me for even a moment. And who freaked out the other night when Grandma dared to pick him up. Grandma. You know: that same woman who will be his caregiver for a week.
To alleviate my concerns, Jamie printed off some articles on “Leaving the Kids Behind.” While many of the comments were encouraging about the need to periodically have a break from the children, others were scathing in their rebuke of ever leaving them. Quite coincidentally, these were also the same Nazis who nursed their kids until they were five.
And so I am in the midst of Operation Detachment and am looking for tips. By week’s end, I hope to have him bathing, feeding and dressing himself (just so long as he keeps his Calgary Flames toque on).
After all, I am nothing if not ambitious….
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 