Riding Solo

My husband's new job requires him to go interstate for work every two months for two weeks. This time, it happened to be when my baby was only one month old and he had to stay for 12 extra days.

It was tough. I won't lie. I missed him. My kids missed him. Even the baby missed him.

We are only in contact for about 1/2 and hour every 2-3 days. By the time my kids talk to him, I only have about ten minutes to catch him up on everything. That is a challenge.

A few days ago, someone asked me: "So, what is it like being a single parent?" I said it was tough, but I don't think you could class me as a 'single parent' -- even a temporary one.

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After having an almost three week stint of solo parenting with seven kids and a baby, I now have such an appreciation for all of the single parents out there. I only tried it for three weeks and after about three days, I was ready for my husband to come back.

Knowing that there would be no one to eventually come home so you could tell them that your 5 year old drew on your leather couch and have them actually understand your depression over the beautiful lounge setting you paid $1,000,000 for, would be tough. Knowing that you couldn't jump on Skype, even after three days, and just talk about what your kids had been up to would be even tougher.

My husband came home today and I am so thankful! I'm not sure if he is feeling the same way, though. He's already been assigned to night and nappy* duty.

I seriously admire all of the single parents around the world. Keep up all of the hard, stressful and sometimes even enjoyable work!

*That's a diaper for all of you American peeps. I was trying to find a suitable picture for this post. When I was looking for diaper pics, I came across a scary site. Let's just say in the name of the website was diaper, fetish and Adults Only 18+ *shudder*