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| Doing nothing on holidays is easy...Doing nothing at home is scary!! |
Yesterday we got a taste of what life could look like when we retire (or at least when the kids leave the house). And it wasn't pretty...
We spent a few days in France last week-end, and left the kids with my parents, where they will stay until mid-August. I was so excited at the idea for the past few months that I couldn't stop thinking about it. May and June were dragging, homework was killing me and all I wanted was peace and silence in the house.
Well, we definitely have silence now. So much so it was scary for the first few days. Habits still kick in when I hear some kids shouting outside and I wonder for half a second if they are mine, then suddenly come back to reality. They are in France, having a great time, and I'm here, wondering what to do with all this free time.
The first few days back were easy. It was mid-week, we were both working and the routine didn't change too much. Except I slept half an hour more every morning and didn't have to take care of anyone else but me. Pure bliss...
Then, Saturday came along. We hadn't planned anything (and on second thoughts we should have), so after lunch we were kind of lost. What are we doing today? Where are we going? We had no clue whatsoever.
I started wondering what were we doing before we had kids? Why were we complaining about being so busy all the time? Then my husband reminded me we used to go out a lot, eat in nice restaurants, meeting friends who also didn't have kids. It was a different life altogether. Plus we had a lot more money to afford it all.
In the end, we went for a 20 minute walk on the beach and when we came back, we were so bored we decided to make a list of our favourite movies. We wrote them on little pieces of paper and picked two each at random. Basically we spent nearly the entire day watching movies. Oh dear...!
If this is what retirement will be like, I don't think I'll be able to cope! On the other hand, my eldest told me he didn't want to grow up and would live with us forever, so maybe we won't have to face the prospect of being bored after all...
As for today, we've decided to go on an adventure. We're taking the car and we'll just see where it takes us...because there is no way I'm staying home to watch "The wolf of Wall street" for the umpteenth time.
