But things are different now. Emily is finishing her junior year and is looking toward college and a job. Her boyfriend and all of her activities take up most of her time. Ricky is finishing his freshman year, and as Mr. Popular with 800 friends, his time is taken up in a very social way. Both still like to do family things with us, but there is less and less time for that sort of thing.
As friends of mine know, I've stayed sane through all this "Mom" stuff by getting together with my girlfriends one Friday a month at "Moms Hell Night Out". But now that doesn't even seem like enough socializing to me, since I have so much more free time without kids. And as a teacher, going into summer, I've really been thinking lately of what parts of me I've lost over the last twenty years, and how I'd like to get back into activities and social events that I used to love to do. Here are a few:
1. Golf: I used to golf quite a bit up in Michigan, and have really missed having the time to do this. I stink at it, but it is so much fun and it is so nice to be outside for that long I really miss having that one great shot a day. It's literally been 18 years since I've done much of this. There's that "Mom Effect" again.
2. Excersize: Summer is good for this, but I'd like to extend this to the rest of the year. I'd like to do lots more bicycle riding on some of the cool trails around St. Louis with friends. Fun and get in great shape too. This of course means a slight investment in a bike carrier, but since I've also decided to spend less on the kids activities and more on me, that'll work.
3. Theater: I might just get us some season tickets to the rep. Or go to the Opera, or Symphony or anything that brings a bit more appreciation of the arts into my life.
4. Organizing my life. Taking all those boxes full of stuff that I said I'd organize "later" sounds just awful, but I think "later" has arrived.
5. Wine Tasting. Nothing more fun than getting a group of friends together and appreciating the grape. This of course can be combined with riding bikes on the katy trail, so #2 can actually correlate with #5.
6. Flute: I've just started playing with a church orchestra this year, and hope to do more. Actually, I might even have time for lessons to get better (maybe I'm dreaming here.)
Raise money for Oakville Band Parents Association just by searching the web and shopping online!
I'll keep thinking, another aspect to all of this is doing joint activities with Rick too. Af course we have to agree on what we like, but the bowling league we were in through church was a hoot. It answered the need for a fun couples activity with other people we know and like, and also was a good outlet for my competitive side. So we'll see how the "Mom thing" plays out this year. I'll keep you posted.
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Chris,
ReplyDeleteThis made so much sense to me. Leah is only 12 and I am already feeling a bit of the same things. It is time for me to take care of me and cultivate my own interests, too. I'm with you.