topic: Just Holding On

Michael: The boys were wrestling around while, in the middle of the room, the baby stood a-ga-ga in one of those big plastic baby things—a saucer, I guess you call it. She was screaming in her kinda-pleasant-increasingly-annoying sort of way, like she frequently does when she gets antsy before the last feeding of the day. A thick rope of drool hung between the bottom of her lower lip and the tip of her chin. Her eyes were big; her mouth hung open.

My wife and I were just trying to hold on. Dinner was over, bedtime was looming, the day had been a long one, and we were ready for some time with each other sans kids.

The remnants of a hurricane had been swirling over our Florida town for the last 48 hours. We’d all been trapped inside. Work and appointments were cancelled. No one was playing in the neighborhood yards.

Earlier, at 6:30 am, we had embraced, alone in our bed, warm, dry and silent. I fell back asleep and when I awoke an hour later, she was gone, up for the day. I heard the breakfast plates clinking, and I smelled the coffee brewing. That’s how it had begun.

It ended in wrestling and screaming. We looked at each other from across the room and smiled. Soon, we were in bed again, sleeping—our time sans kids.

Anne: Some days it does feel like you are just holding on until the time when the kids are in bed, the dishes are done, the clothes are folded and put away, the toys are picked up, and the house is finally quiet.

Most evenings you'd like to simply kick back at the end of a long, productive day, make a little dinner when the feeling hits you and then settle down to read or catch a show before going off to bed. With kids, though, there's just a bunch of things to get done. Your older kids say they're "starving," the younger ones are crying. The older ones have homework, and baby needs a bath. None of them can do these things completely on their own, so you're rushing around to assist, while making dinner, and you better hurry because bedtime is looming and if everyone gets to bed late, tomorrow will REALLY be hell!

By the time the kids are finally in bed, you are so whipped all you can do sometimes is just go to bed too.

Many evenings I actually find myself looking at the clock and doing the countdown: One more hour until the kids' bedtime... 45 minutes... only 10 more minutes!

Of course, it's not that I don't enjoy my kids, but everyone needs to unwind and it's pretty difficult to do until the kids are done for this day and ready to face tomorrow. I do feel a little guilty about longing for their bedtime, but I know that Michael and I need our time sans kids, too--some days more desperately than others!