Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Bahamas or Bust

Dust and I went on a quick getaway this weekend with my brother and sis-in-law and I will be blogging about some of our adventures.  I want to get the sappy stuff out of the way first.

This was the first time that we have left Ry for longer than 1 night anywhere.  Both parents, away for 4 nights.  He seemed fine before we left, very excited to go to spend time with Oma & Opa.  We had everything prepped, packed and ready.  We loaded up half our house, Ryland and Sadie and drove to my parent's house.  We made a huge, rookie parenting mistake.  We dropped him off at bedtime.  Dummies.  As soon as we got there, I tried to put him to bed and he just started crying.  It was so unlike him and just broke my heart.  We tried to calm him down, but eventually we just had to leave...for both of our sakes.  I was a mess.  Luckily, halfway home we got a a text from my mom "he's asleep"...what a huge sigh of relief.  What kind of idiot drops the kid off like that at bedtime?  Dustin and I just shook our heads at each other all weekend.  If we had just dropped him off at ANY other time, parting would have been fine. 

I know leaving your kids for that long is hard for most parents.  Especially the first time.  I totally get it.  BUT, it's just a little different for us.  I don't have a kid that just believes when we say we're coming back.  He often doesn't think we are coming back.  He's been left before.  And he is very scared of being left again.  It's just something we have to deal with...there is no going around it.  The good news is that it makes the times when we do come back, that much more special for both of us.

It's IMPORTANT to take these trips.  It's really important for Dustin and I to take these trips.  It's also really important for Ry to have these trips take place.  It forces us to show him that we always come back.  Everyone needs downtime.  It's healthy.  It's ok to enforce the "No Kids Allowed" policy from time to time.   

1 comment:

  1. You are so right, as a couple you have to take care of yourself. I don't think what you did was a mistake, I think a lot depends on the individual child. Now you know how to handle trips like that. I'm so jealous of your trip!

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