A few weeks ago, I spent 5.5 hours alone with Sam.
What’s the big deal, you ask? Parents spend time alone with their kids all the time. And that’s true. I do spend time alone with my kids all the time. However, I do not spend time alone with my KID all the time.
I have 5 year old twins. Twins. We got them as a pair, and we usually keep the pair together. I do things with Sam and Lucy. Mark and I go out with Lucy and Sam. We do things together as a family. We don’t really split up.
I know a lot of parents will split up to take kids to different activities or outings or adventures. But our kids are twins. They’re the same age. They’re on the same schedule. They’re into the same things. They like doing the same activities. So they do things together, which means we don’t often split up. Quite honestly, we rarely split up.
Which is why it was so odd to spend 5.5 hours alone with my 5 year old son. I took him to a doctor’s appointment. We thought it would take 2 hours and he’d go back to school. It took closer to 5 hours. So by the time we picked Lucy up from school, Sam and I had spent 5.5 hours together. We talked, we laughed, we played games, we chatted with the doctor, we had snacks, we coloured, we danced, we talked with another doctor, we ate again, we laughed some more. We had a wonderful time together.
On our way to school to pick up Lucy, I said “Sam, I had a lot of fun with you today on our Mommy and Sam adventure day.”
And he said, “Me too, Mommy.”
Then he added, “But I sure missed Lucy.”