It’s funny…there are some things that you take for granted when you are part of a couple or a “team”—even thought it has been years since I was part of a functioning couple or had the benefit of a partner to help out with childcare, parenting or household stuff, I do have faint memories of what it was like every once in a while to have someone else to do the dishes or to be able to spend an extra hour in the garden while someone else cooked dinner. It didn’t happen very often—but that was more that it has happened in the past several years that I have been a solo, single parent!
Last night, with my hands in the dishwasher—after preparing dinner (Swedish meatballs, scalloped potatoes and sautéed summer squash) and catching up with kids; this after working a 8.5-hour day and stopping at the store after work; and prior to throwing in a load of dirty laundry—I realized that other than the occasional pizza or dinner out with a friend (and that doesn’t happen too often due to expense), I haven’t had a meal I didn’t have some hand in preparing in YEARS. Not days or weeks or months—years. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, holidays—you name it. If someone wanted to sweep me off my feet (and that too is not likely to happen at this late stage in the game)—cooking a meal or two and washing up the dishes without the slightest need of my assistance would probably do the trick.
The great thing about life and being a human is that we just inevitably adjust to whatever our lot might be. I love being a parent and I’ve written before about some of the realities of single parenthood that I actually feel blessed and grateful for. BUT, there are those other realities that if we think about them too hard it might dawn on us that a little break might actually be a good thing…
Also: What I Like About Being a Single Parent