As I sat at Las Vegas’ airport waiting for the flight that would bring me back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about my kids, and how much I missed them. My wife and I had the rare opportunity of going away for 5 days without the kids. Her sister had taken a week off from work and she volunteered to stay with the children while we went away. We took the offer and quickly made the arrangements to spend 4 nights and 5 days in a city where pretty much everything is built to keep you entertained 24/7.
We were really excited about the trip. We usually try to go away at least once or twice a year for a long weekend just the two of us. We even went on a cruise for a week by ourselves but that was several years ago, and we hadn’t had another “kids free” vacation in a while.
So I booked our flight, got a great deal on a hotel, and mentally prepared to experience Las Vegas the way they intended to be experienced: by having fun and not worrying about a thing in the world.
Then by the second day, we started talking about how much our kids would have enjoyed the trip if they would have come with us. Why do parents do that? We spend the whole year wanting some time off by ourselves and as soon as we go away we began wishing we had brought our kids.
Perhaps is the guilt feeling we have because we are having fun and they are not. Or maybe it is all part of that separation anxiety parents feel every time we trust the care of our children to someone else, no matter how capable and responsible that person is. By the end of our vacation we couldn’t wait to get home and see our children again. We missed them some much that we drove straight from the airport after a 4 ˝ hours red eye flight just to see them still sleeping, give them a kiss and sit on the kitchen with my sister in law to chat and wait until they would wake up.
During our stay in Las Vegas, we would constantly point at some amusement ride or interesting looking building and tell each other how much one of our children would have loved to see this or try that. Even during our excursion to the Grand Canyon I went to check a hotel and find out the rates, thinking that perhaps in the future we could arrange a family vacation to the Grand Canyon.
On the way back home with the kids already in the car, the perpetual argument about what radio station each one wanted to hear began within 5 minutes of driving. I quickly turned at my wife and said “Vacation is over… I can’t wait till the next time we go away without them”