BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids 3 things not possible with children

Hi - Feebee having another five minute work break here. Am working long hours and all weekend as we lead up to go-live of the project I am working on. Which is why I am on the forum only in curt "snippets" lately.

You know how much I love lists. What are three things you've been able to do this past week that you wouldn't have been able to do with kids?

Me:

1. Worked long hours and dropped everything else in my life to get this exciting and scary work project live.

2. Did a little freelance writing job on Monday and Tuesday evenings that earned us an extra $400.

3. Had fish and chips last night with DH and crashed into bed for a 9 hour sleep.

It's stressful for me right now, but at least I only have to worry about me and DH. You said in a recent post, Pikasam, that you like to travel lightly through life. I know what you mean - this life is complex enough, with plenty of surprises, and managing just myself is pretty challenging.

Me:

1. Me and DH had a "shopping trip", because we need furniture for our bathroom. We spent 4 hours going to 4 or 5 furniture stores!!!

2. Me, DH and some friends went to some clubs and pubs last weekend. We went to bed at 6 am and sleeped until 11 am.

3. Me and DH made our first motorbike tour this year - it was gorgeous!!!

Juliana

Hmmm, this past week:

1. had Vietnamese food for dinner one night and let the owner of the restaurant make a special spicy dish for us (he said to trust him and we did!)

2. took a day off in the middle of the week and actually got to relax and read a book without interuption

3. attended a two-day out-of-town seminar on short notice

Love this topic! Here's what we did this past week:

1. Went cross country skiing and then to a brewery for dinner--the relaxing peace and quiet at dinner never would've been possible w/ kids!

2. Had beer and chocolate for dinner instead of cooking

3. Got together with friends after work

Great topic! My three things are:

1. Went for an impromptu nice long drive round a few local car rally routes (the car is now absolutely filthy and desperately needs a wash!).

2. Cooked myself a lovely beef stroganoff accompanied by way too much wine.

3. Had a lovely lie in this morning and I've done precious little so far today. Bliss!

The funny thing is, at first I thought I had nothing to say. But, as I looked at just last week--a nothing special kind of week--I realized that even little things like the examples below, would have been so drastically altered if there were kids in this house. Thanks for the great topic!

1. Got home from work on Wed & didn't feel well, so I napped unil 8:30 PM. Got up and made a quick light dinner, watched political news shows, played on the computer and went to bed late.

2. Got up late for work on Thursday and was still on time because I had no one to get ready but myself, and no one to drop off anywhere on the way to work, and my itty bitty sports car drives really fast.

3. Got up late on Sunday (because we stayed up late watching movies & SNL), left the house without eating, ran arrinds (in one of our 2 little sports cars) all day long, finally ate the first bite of the day at 4PM, ran more arrinds, came home & crashed for a few hours (read and napped), woke up really late and ate frozen pizza.

Fun topic! I like these too. I probably could have managed to do a lot of things I did with a kid, but I don't know...not with such ease and no prep:

��Went on a midday, spontaneous hike by myself with my dog in nature preserve

��Was feeling a bit stiff, so did an hour of yoga, uninterrupted

��Worked on my blog before and while cooking dinner one night

� And I'm claiming an extra credit #4: We're winding up a big rehab project on our property, undergrounding the power lines. It's almost finished and our new underground power was hooked up last week. It's been an enormous effort in time and finances, over a year, and something we probably could not have done had we been focused on raising a child, certainly not this year if I was undergoing fertility treatments and riding the TTC rollercoaster.

My list will be somewhat similar to Kim's, because I've had a pretty ho-hum kind of week.

1. I WAY overslept Thursday morning and still got into work on time...and was gone from home for almost 13 hours. I rolled out of bed at 8:07, showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed, loaded my pockets (I don't carry a purse very often), commuted 15 miles in the icky morning traffic, and made it into work at 9:02. (I love being low-maintenance. In fact, I revel in it. Having a kid would just destroy that part of me.) We had errands to run in the evening, so we didn't even come home from work until well after 9pm. Beastie was given extra food in the morning, but otherwise, we ran our errands with no planning and no concern for a "normal" family schedule. Dinner that night was leftovers we scrounged up at 10pm. Not a kid-friendly evening, by any means!

2. Worked just under 40 hours, despite being a part-timer and despite having a few bad days with my knee. I limped through the first half of this week, the first truly "bad days" I've had in months. With a kid's schedule and physical demands, I wouldn't have been able to take on the extra hours, let alone actually work them when I wasn't feeling my best.

3. Spent my downtime this week planning for next week's vacation (when I wasn't goofing off online). My fiance will be out of town all week for work, and I'm taking the week off to catch up on writing and housework, and spending time with a friend before he moves out of state. Except for that visit, I'll be blissfully alone (with the Beastie) all week. Planning this coming week, let alone living it, wouldn't have even crossed our minds with kids in the house.

Great topic, Feebee! Writing/reading these lists could really put things into perspective for fence sitters. As in, "What effect would a kid have on an average week?" Of course, we're mostly hitting the big things. We're skimming over the fact that every minute of everyday would suffer some small change with kids.

Feebee - fish and chips. God, I miss that. Nobody in Canada knows what I'm talking about when I fantasise about burgers with fried eggs and beetroot, and deep fried pineapple fritters...

Sounds like you're on top of the project now - good work!

Love This topic!

1. Played Poker until 2;15am last night and won $ 35!

2. Went to my old high school to watch the team stomp the distric favorite. Met up with (Amazingly) four classmates from the Class of '83 and went out drinking until midnight on Thurs.

3. Not fun, but have spent ALL morning collecting recipts to turn in for tax credits on our historic renovation. I have made it through two years already; only two to go. I could NEVER get this far with an ankle biter or two around.