Dinner Out

I remember a time in our early couplehood, Mad Dog and I could make plans on a moment’s notice. We could go where we pleased when we pleased and our leisure time was golden. When Full Speed entered the picture our carefree ability to make plans nearly vanished and then once we added in T.Puzzle, vanish completely it did.

This is not a complaint, it is a statement of fact. Of course early on I was so overwhelmed and shocked by the demands of motherhood that I would have complained incessantly about this loss of freedom (had I any energy). Now, I’m a little older, a little wiser and while I still get frustrated, I have slowly accepted that plans of a social nature were made to be broken.

Despite the fragile nature of plan-making, as parents you still have to make the effort. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and you can have a fun, child-free night out. Mad Dog had the brainstorm idea to go to a nice resort for New Year’s Eve as a family. We would participate in some family activities during the day and hire an on-site babysitter so Mad Dog and I could have a nice dinner to ring in the New Year. Then before plans were definitely made, T.Puzzle slimed me and all bets were off. Instead we spent the days leading up to this New Year’s Eve hoping T.Puzzle would recover (he almost has) and keeping an eye on Full Speed to make sure he wasn’t next in slime (you know what I mean and so far so good).

Since our grand plans never got off the ground, we did manage to get a short dinner out last night. We thought we may even try the movies but T.Puzzle was so over-the-top emotional arising from his afternoon nap, I had a very difficult time being away from him. It took immense will-power not to text our babysitter forty-seven times while dining. Mad Dog was patient with my anxiety and calmly assured me that T.Puzzle would be fine. He doesn’t know when he excused himself from our table for a moment it took Herculean reserve on my part not to pick up his cellphone and dial our sitter (I had made him leave it on the table so we could hear it better if she called or texted).

I never in all my life thought a dinner out would feel so complicated. We ended our night early of course and skipped the movie. That decision ended up seeming surprisingly simple. Too bad motherhood in general can’t be like that.