Saturday, December 10, 2011

Babysitter for an evening

Today Annika will have a babysitter. My aunt will be coming over to watch her this evening. This marks the first time someone in my family will be watching Annika. (I do believe one time I left Annika with my dad for like 10 minutes while my mom and I ran to Subway to get sandwiches but I don't really count that because he asked me to put her in the middle of the living room floor so he wouldn't have to move her, I think she was like 3 months old so he technically only had to "watch" her.)

Josh and I are a bit....ummm...overprotective.

One of Josh's old co-workers who had a son in Annika's daycare was the first person to watch Annika for us ever. She watched her one day for a few hours while we went to visit my dad in the hospital together last year. Then she watched her overnight when I had my first half marathon last November.

My friend from work watched Annika in May when we had our first ever "date night". We went to dinner and a movie and were only gone about 3 hours.

So it's a big deal to actually get out, just the two of us.

But honestly it kind of stresses me out a little.

After reading the book "Parentless Parents"I learned that this is very typical of someone who has lost their parents. It's even more so for Josh and I since we both don't have parents. What would happen to Annika (and soon Annabel) if something happened to us both while they were young? It makes me never want the two of us to leave them to do anything! I know this isn't healthy and that we do need an occasional date night but it's so hard to just do it!

In reading this book I learned that a lot of parentless parents don't go on date nights and totally never ever take vacations without their children (we've talked about this and we would NEVER do it). We live a different life than most people our age and so will our girls without having grandparents like most kids have.

I do want to quickly say that I was disappointed in the book overall. I should do a full review but in my honest opinion I felt like the author was a bit of a, well, whiner.....I'll just do a full review soon to explain myself better.

Anyway so today is a big deal! I'm so glad that my aunt is coming over to watch Annika. She loves Annika and Annika loves her. Annika always runs to her and gives her a hug and kiss when we see her! I just know they're going to have fun together.

1 comment:

  1. You're right, it is important for you and your husband to have time alone together. I empathize with your situation, though, and I know it's even hard for me, and I still have both my parents living. It is so hard to leave my daughter though, so I think it's possibly not just a parentless parents thing, but also a *caring* parents thing. I care what happens to my daughter and I don't want anything to happen when I'm away from her. I worry about something happening to me, too, and that is one of those thoughts I just have to drive out most of the time because it's not productive. I know it made me feel better to draft a will on my computer (I know, not necessarily legal but it made me feel better) stating exactly who would get my daughter if something should happen to my husband and me. It was comforting to know I could pick and choose exactly who would have the first, second, or third opportunity to raise her in the event it was necessary. Anyway, I guess my point is that I'm glad you got out, and even though it's hard, try to make a chance to do that every so often.

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