'Me Time'

Today is my third consecutive Wednesday I have been kid free from about 9am until 3.30pm.

When I had Noah my father-in-law made a decision that he wanted to be an involved and regular fixture in his grand children's lives and he decided to semi-retire to make it happen.  As soon as it was possible he showed up and took Noah away for a special one-on-one 'Pa Day' every week.  Only 6 months later my sister-in-law added another grandson to the mix and he too got his day in the sun with Pa.  As the boys got older and easier to handle their days with Pa merged so that they were also getting some quality cousin bonding time too.  Then along came Finn's baby sister Beth and then our beautiful Harper. John certainly had his hands full now and depending on school schedules had various combinations of 2 or 3 of them and then 4 in the school holidays.

When the twins came along I never really thought much about Pa Day.  I figured 8 years later John had probably done his dash and would appreciate some free time now that he'd seen the 4 big kids through to their school years.  As the end of last year approached though the news came that once school started he would like to take Matilda and Quinn for their turn.  I was gobsmacked.  Two babies - was he mad?  I can barely cope most days and it has certainly been a daunting prospect for most people to even babysit for a couple of hours here and there - let alone committing to 9 hours every week.

But here we are week 3 and in he comes at 8am on a Wednesday morning full of enthusiasm and takes those precious girls away.  On alternate weeks he even takes Harper too.  He genuinely loves it.  Sure he's tired at the end of the day but he's always full of smiles and reports how wonderful his day has been.

It's an amazing blessing for me of course - a chance to take a moment to get some shit done or take some time out or drink a hot cup of coffee.  The best thing is John does it because he wants to, of course I benefit, but that's not what it's about.  It's a no guilt, no strings attached kid free day and I bloody love it.