Reply to Why do people who have kids literally drop off the face of the earth?

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Reply to "Why do people who have kids literally drop off the face of the earth?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the hardest part to understand is the complete lack of "me" time when you are a parent and what that does. [b]Before I had kids, once my work day was done, it was my choice on how to spend the rest of my time.[/b] I could socialize and relax and exercise at times of my choosing and often do all three in a single day. I chose my bedtime, my work wake up and departure time, and could spend time with myself. As a parent, most of that is blown away. You are responsible for keeping other people alive and need to work to their schedule. The children want to be around you. When you finally get a child-free and task-free time, unless you are a massive extrovert, you want to spend a bit of time just being, and not with other people. Only once your me-recharge time has added up a bit do you feel like seeing other people.

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+100. When my kids go to their grandparents house for one week in the summer, we are in awe.  No cooking, we go out to Happy Hour because we can.  I come home and have NO responsibilities.  If I wake up at 6am and feel like going in early to work I can do so because I don't have to drop the kids at camp/daycare.  Heck, one day we went crazy and went to a movie one evening during the work week that the kids were away because it was sold out during the weekend and we said wait, we can go to a 6:00pm movie and still get to bed early enough for work the next day.

So agree with the other posters that part of get together with friends depends on the time, frequency, and age of the children.  When my children were young, we would tend to have Mom Night Out during the work week but around 7-7:30 so it would be after the kids were in bed or close to it so it wasn't putting a lot of extra work for our husbands.  We also were meeting up mabye once a month, not every week.  With another group of friends we found Sunday brunch was surprisingly devoid of any conflicts with kid activities for the most part.  My phone conversation with college friends tended to be on the drive home while in rush hour traffic - it's the only time I have both the privacy for a phone call and a decent block of time before the kids are asleep.  I talk to one friend weekly - in a way being on a shedule in a sense makes it easier.  For lots of guys those kickball teams etc is the way they stay social.  Having something that is scheduled and affordable (like running, soccer, kickball) allows people to see friends, you aren't spending the kind of money like eating out (which you can easily spend $35-$40 each time) and are enjoying a hobby.  Women have book clubs where no one reads the book - but it's a  low cost way to get together on a regular basis.[/quote]

If you're still waking up at 6am when the kids are away, you're not doing it right. [/quote]

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