Hack #5: Space is the Secret to 1:1 QT

I am one of five children and a bona fide middle child. While I know there were daily choices my parents made to ensure none of us felt like we were anything less than a top priority, my mom set a particularly amazing precedent: the “Getaway.”

“Getaways” with Mom were epic when we were kids. Getaways were 1:1 overnights, and the general tone was “treat yo’self” before that phrase was in vogue. My siblings and I talked about these for months (years) afterwards and they live on in our shared narrative.

My Getaway memory — crystal clear even 20+ years later — is as follows:

• We went on an extensive trip to an exotic location
• We saw Homeward Bound in theater
• She let me buy something from the quarter machines at a store when I asked (that was a hard pass in any other context… and now that I’m a parent, I understand why)
• We talked about everything I wanted to talk about, and ate what I wanted to eat
• We went to a hotel (with a pool!!!!) and stayed the night
• I had a great time

I found out many years later that we had only gone as far as Ann Arbor, <1 hour from home.

So when I wanted to get some QT with A, our resident Daddy’s Boy, I knew just what to do.

Friday I picked up A from school early and we hit the road! We went to a hotel not far away and swam in the rocking indoor pool with a massive shallow end. We got room service pizza and pasta and ate on the hotel bed like it didn’t matter if we spilled. We shared a slice of chocolate cake that was not contingent upon him finishing some portion of his entree. We stayed up late and slept like logs. We had continental breakfast and I didn’t blink when he wanted to spoon his strawberry yogurt into the dregs of his orange juice. We went for an extended joyride on the elevator. We swam again and played out roughly 70 scenarios where our pool noodles were hoses extinguishing fires. We listened to his favorite tunes all the way home (who knew?).

Could A articulate what we did by the time he got home and Dave asked how his adventure was with Mom? No.

Did my 2 year old tell me in no uncertain terms that he would be riding a motorcycle when he “got bigger” because we saw two on the drive? Yes.

Did this Getaway help reestablish our bond that has never been the same since C came along? Perhaps not.

But did he have a good enough time that he requested I join him in a resounding and very public “hip hip, HOORAY!” chorus over our breakfast orange juices?? You bet he did.