Skip to main content

What can you do when you're child-free?

This week we are child-free. Elf is staying with his grandparents. We have been able to do the following since we have been child-free:
  • Laid in bed until 9.30 YES 9.30 on Easter Monday
  • Gone to the toilet on our own, without having to wipe someone else's bottom or play "Talk funny Mummy" (which involves me talking in a range of accents, well mostly American, and Elf laughing at me)
  • Watched our own choice of telly which isn't, funnily enough, Humf or The Backyardigans
  • Had a long adult lunch of three courses uninterrupted on Easter Sunday
  • Turned our noses up at other tables in said restaurant with children attached (only joking)
  • Shopped in peace at our own pace after said three course lunch
  • Tried on clothes during said shopping trip
  • Argued with each other. Why? Because we could!
  • Worked a full day instead of part-time (to make up for leaving work early last week as Elf had tonsillitis) I don't have to leave bang on time to avoid the huge penalties for picking Elf up late from nursery
  • Not had to wait outside the house in my joggers for OH to come home so I can race to my Pilates class (does the stress involved in waiting til the 11th hour negate the relaxation achieved once there?)
  • Laid in bed until the last minute before I have to get up before work (bliss)
  • Cooked dinner, eaten it by 6.15pm and watched Hollyoaks (it's still awful)
  • Tidied my wardrobe and put away my Winter warmers
  • Booked catch-up suppers later in the week with friends separately but ON THE SAME NIGHT
  • Planned to go to a work friend's 40th birthday party TOGETHER without having to pay a babysitter.
As my and OH's parents all live four hours away, we rarely have any time to go out without having to pay for a babysitter. Our parents take Elf away for a week's holiday once or twice a year, leaving us with a week free to do the above. The girls at work were amazed that I said I wouldn't miss Elf. Why would I? He's having fun with Grandma and Grandpa. I do wonder what he is up to each day. In fact I think I'll just give Grandma a quick call now...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Would I Lie To You board family game review

Would I Lie To You? "The game of believable lies and unbelievable lies ", linked into the TV show of the same name. Purchased:  December 2017 in Waterstones, for around £20 In a nutshell: These TV show-affiliated games usually show themselves up (Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Top Gear) but this game is fun and easy to play (if a little modified) as a family. You don't really need specialist knowledge to play, just the ability to lie! Every year for Christmas, I like to buy a board game to play, even though no games better either Ludo (in which my dad is the reigning cheater-champion, and argues to high heaven over the rules about doubling up or how to place your counters in "Home") or Rummikub (which we can now play with two packs of cards lest we forget the game). This year, Would I Lie To You caught my eye in Waterstones (other emporiums - emporia? - for book lovers are [locally] unavailable). It's a game, it says, for 2-8 players; however we dec...

A walk from Portchester Castle to Salt Cafe

Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we...

That's not my Elf, he's too rude and noisy

At nursery drop-off this morning, I was handed part of Elf's transfer to school pack, you know, the bit that the pre-school teacher had completed and also that Elf had drawn in (looking worryingly like a blaze that Fireman Sam ought to be putting out instead of rescuing Norman's head from a saucepan with the "jaws of life"). Reading it, I had a sense of "That's not my child" in the way that the above tractor book is written. Surely, the little angel you've so kindly described here doesn't really exist, and certainly doesn't pretend to be my little Elf? So here is "This is not my child" book, by A Humdrum Mum. That's not my child He's too rude and noisy That's not my child He's uncaring and unkind (to me sometimes) That's not my child He wants to sit in front of the TV not run around in the garden That's not my child He won't help me take in the washing This is my child ...