I’m going into my third year carrying the very important title “Mommy” and I have never been away from them for more than 2 nights. I’ve scaled back a lot on traveling, leaving that to Dean and the senior management at FV. If I do have to travel, I either make it a day trip, or at most a couple nights where I crammed 15 meetings in. It was super tiring, but all in the aim to be as productive as possible and come back asap. I think any parent can relate to this; the pain of leaving them for a long time.

This is how it usually goes:

Parent: HOW LA HOW LA!! How are they going to sleep without me? Will they be staring at my photos with tears in their eyes? I’m the worst parent ever. Will they be safe? Will they be confused? Would this trip scar them forever and they will think their parents don’t love them? Will this be the start of them being screwed up kids who rebel and have tattoos that spell out Pain or I Hate My Mother all over them? Should I cancel my trip? I should really cancel my trip, right?

Our kids: I misss Mommyyyyy!!!! I want Mommy!!!! Ooooo, is that a toy? Oooooh toyyyyyyy. Toy toy toy toy toy toy.

I mean, seriously.

I can’t tell you enough how true this is, based on my recent US trip with Dean. We had to go for work, and having traveled 25 hours there, it would be silly not to extend a few more days to enjoy ourselves as well. But I was a mess leading up to my departure date. I was crying every single day, stroking their hair when they slept, watching them sleep in the dark with tissues up my nose, checking the airline website how much it would cost to change to an earlier return flight, crying some more. A total freak! And even when I was there, we’d check in everyday, wanting to know their every move. Them? Daniel asked for us a few times but more like “Hey, where’d Mom and Dad go? Swear I thought I saw those two peeps walk past just now. Oh well.” To think I wasted tears on this one. And Mariam? Well, it’s hard to tell. Her days are just “…………oohh I have fingers……ooohhh I have toes…….”. She’s busy.

But I gotta tell you, that trip was amazing for Dean and I, minus the parent guilt. We were Husband and Wife, instead of predominantly Daddy and Mommy, and it gave us the time together that we really missed. We had undisturbed sleep, guys!! Like full-on night sleep without waking up to make milk. It was AH-MA-ZING.

I know I’d be really unpopular for saying this (even my parents are very traditional and never think parents should leave their kids), but I recommend love trips just you and hubs every once in a while. Maybe not for such a long period like ours, but at least a weekend away every now and then to rekindle the romance.

Just don’t come back with another child on the way. That would be very funny and ironic. Haha.