Girl Time

A couple of nights ago, the day that my son missed his school bus, we had so much drama. I was downtown at the time and could not get to the school to get him. I called my ex and he said he wasn't in the area either. He suggested that I get my parents to do it. Nice try buddy, but mom and dad are vacationing in Florida. I got frustrated with his lack of involvement and eventually told him that he had 3 brothers who live nearby. Pick one and get them to take responsibility for their nephew. Seriously...why does it always have to be my family? Well to my shock, he agreed to do it, and so my brother in law went to get him from the school.

Anyhow, when I went to get my daughter from daycare, she was upset that her brother not only misses the school bus, but gets rewarded for it by getting to hang out with his cousins while she goes to daycare. I did see her point. So she asked for some girl time. I agreed and we went home, had dinner, played, laughed, watched TV. (I had asked my ex to bring my son home and hour and a half later so my daughter could get her long awaited girl time). It was lovely. But I did learn a few things from the experience:

• My daughter is the easier of the two children from a disposition perspective, for now.
• It is a lot quieter in the house with one child.
• Despite the above, I am really lucky to have both of my children in my life. My son is so loving in his own way. He knows me better than most people. He is very sensitive to my feelings. He is less clingy than my daughter. Every child is indeed different. But after a couple of hours, I really really missed my son as well.
  
• I always told myself that it was harder to be a single parent with two children. This week, I learned that in some ways, it is harder, and in other ways, it isn't. It is hard because you end up refereeing their fights all day long. You have to do double the work- dress two kids in the morning, pack two lunches. But there is a catch. When you have one child, you have to dedicate all your time to them. When you have two, they play with each other and you get some head space.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVED the girl time. But I think I just found the silver lining in being a single parent to two children. It's a good deal. I get a bit of head space at times, and they have a best friend for life. If I had just the one, I would never get space in the day to get stuff done, and they would always be lonely and asking for play dates etc. It has worked out very well for me.

Not a bad deal. I think God had my back on this one. I'm glad I was given the opportunity to see the silver lining in what was brought my way. That's half the journey, isn't it?