At the end of the summer, we asked our six year old twins, Lucy and Sam, what activities they wanted to do in September.

Lucy immediately answered “I want to take tap and ballet.” Sam said he wanted to take ballet and Karate. So we sat down with schedules and mapped everything out. Ballet is on Saturdays, tap is on Tuesday after school and Aikido is Monday and Wednesday after school. (Yes, I realize Aikido is not the same as Karate, but it fit our schedule better, so Aikido it is!)

“So Sam, when Lucy has tap class, you’ll have to come to the dance studio with us because dad is still at work,” I explained. “While Lucy is in class, you and I can have a Sam and Mommy date. We can go for a snack or just go for a walk, but it’ll be just the two of us.”

Sam, being a twin, was pretty excited about the prospect of having me all to himself for a full hour every week. His face lit up and he said “Okay! I get to hang out with moooooom! All by myselfffffffff!”

I couldn’t help but smile.

Then I turned to Lucy and explained the same thing. “You’ll have to come with me to take Sam to Aikido. But while he’s in class, you and I can have a Lucy and Mommy date. We can go to a park or go for a treat, whatever we want to do. It’ll be just Lucy and Mommy.”

I looked at her, expecting the same reaction that I had gotten from Sam. I waited for her eyes to light up and for the excitement to register on her face.

Instead I got: “That’s okay, Mom. I think I’d rather just take Aikido.”

Ouch.

I was ditched for the dojo.