One of the girls is getting married at the weekend. My group of school friends are going to be together again for a whole weekend! Myself and the hubby are heading away for TWO nights, count them TWO nights in a beautiful hotel to spend TWO days with some of my best friends, oh did I mention we are going to be kid-less, yep its gonna be Kieran and Tracey minus the three Ts aka the teenager the twins and the toddler!!
I am so bloody excited! Have you ever watched a woman prepare herself for a few nights away on her own? Especially a woman who has kids? Its a thing of beauty…
She has mentally laid out everything she wants to wear for the weekend, the outfits she has planned are probably not in her wardrobe yet. They are probably hanging on a gondola in Penneys or River Island or in her cart in ASOS.
She has sorted out what she is wearing for the journey, she has maybe purchased some new mascara or foundation. She has definitely gone out and bought new pyjamas, that goes without saying!! I mean you cannot take off for a few nights without sporting some new striped pjs with a cute quote blazoned on the top…right? I mean I think it may be a law or something!!
All the appointments have been made, the plucking, the waxing, the tanning, the hair and the makeup… all timed with great precision around who may be available to watch the kids for those much needed hours.
Eyebrows become sisters again, as opposed to conjoined twins… lips are made bald, eyelashes suddenly grow an inch…you name it, if it grows its plucked and if it doesn’t grow enough its extended!! and they say women are complicated??!!!
The car journey to wherever the destination might be is another exciting factor. To those who are without offspring yet, a simple car journey might not seem like an exciting thing. BELIEVE ME from a mum of 6 year old twins and an almost 2 year old (the 15 years old is car trained now, she sticks in her headphones and tunes out *lucky her*) having a car journey with your other half or friends or even alone, is BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!! Its not just the fact you can listen to whatever music you want, no, its the simple fact you can listen to a song from start to finish without pausing it to shout at whoever is over on whoever’s side that they shouldn’t be. Or sort out who’s turn it is to have that feckin Super Mario Brothers game…or push the toddlers head back when he sleeping (now to be fair the teenager can do this, but she’s usually pretending to be asleep), or looking for a garage because someone really has to do “A POO MUMMY!!!” Oh the wee wees are grand, find a nice bit of road to pull in and open the doors and away with them, the poos, well the poos are something else. PANIC STATIONS to find a petrol station… mums you can all relate right?!
So having the peaceful car journey belting out the hits from 1999, being frizz free and tinted to within an inch of you life…what else… oh yea being yourself. There is nothing quite like being the person you were before you had kids, or a job or responsibilities…being around the right people will always bring this out in me. The belly laughs, crying from laughing, having a good gossip and just been genuinely carefree for those 48 hours. I adore getting away with the hubbie and its been years since we got away on our own, but add in being with the girls from school and its the perfect weekend for me. I will be Tracey again for a couple of days, not mum, not a co-worker, but Tracey, me, myself and I. Sometime you lose sight of being “you”, being so busy with kids, work, caring for parents whatever it might be, so to have a couple of days in a year where you are you is so bloody important. For you, but especially for your kids, you need to re-charge too. (I don’t know how this turned motivational!!)
Anyway back to preparing for your weekend away, if you are like me you know exactly what time you will be hitting to road at and you have whoever is lucky enough to be childminding for you aware of this time…in fact you may not need to head away so early but who needs to know this??!! You will have carefully packed everything neatly, your new clothes including but not limited to some new knickers and pjs, toiletries, makeup in a cute little makeup bag, brushes, straighteners, hairdryer, heels, trainers, pumps, extra tan and an extra 3 pairs of jeans and 4 tops cos…you never know!! Everything is done the night before leaving out your toothbrush and light makeup for the journey.
Hitting the road time, you say your goodbyes and give your littlest ones kisses…then the first pangs of guilt appear, “oh look at their cute little faces!! I’m gonna miss them so much!”, then one twin sits on the other twins face and all hell breaks loose…yep those will be the tyre marks from mummy and daddy screeching out of the drive…”See ya in a couple of days!!bring you back something niiiiiice…byyyeeeeeeeee!”
The funny thing is when your weekend is over and you are heading home there is nothing nor nobody you want to see more than your kids…”oh my cherubs, I have missed them so much, they probably cried for me every night…” now 60% of this is probably the nerves being gone from the copious amount of white wine consumed over the past few days and some of the fear lingering in your soul. There will be big kisses when you walk in the door…2 minutes later the tales start…Jamie said a bad word, Cian was cheeky to nanny…then someone sits on someones face and guess what its the sitters tyres that are now screeching out of the driveway while shouting “see ya next year!!”…
Welcome home mum, but hey at least your still hairless and somewhat tanned *in patches*for another couple of days right?!
*mum frantically searches diary for the next wedding or event*
p.s. Happy Wedding Day Jacinta and Tom xx