As a parent, whenever I go away for a night
or two, be it for business or pleasure I am met with an insurmountable amount of
guilt. I imagine my bereft household
grinding to a halt of inactivity and mourning in my absence and I appease my
guilt by cooking meals in advance, scheduling play dates and activities and
calling and texting regularly during my time away. The last time I went away (for a whopping 48
hours) I baked a 2 layer banana cake and stuffed it with hidden popsicle sticks
with cute messages like “Mommy loves you!” and “Hugs and kisses from me! xoxo”
on them.
The kids LOVED the cake but lets be honest -
-my absence did not rock their world.
The managed JUST FINE without me, with or without my secret cake
messages.
I have been coming to accept the fact that
they are growing up and becoming more independent and practical
beings. They have such full and
complete lives that my absence for 48 hours, although perhaps a good bargaining
tool at bedtime, doesn’t DEVASTATE them as it used to. I’ve consoled myself with the rationale that
it’s not a reflection of our relationship as much as a simple fact that they are
maturing and getting to be more self sufficient.
Or so I told myself.
Last Monday, however, The Worst Thing To
Ever Happen To Mia occurred without much forewarning OR a homemade double
decker banana cake with hidden popsicle sticks with messages of love on them.
Jack Jack went to Mexico.
For a whole week.
I suppose we could have prepared her better
for it. Assuming she would treat it as
she often treats my absences I didn’t so much as mention it to her until the day of. They left on Monday
afternoon and somehow still managed to fit in a playdate on the morning of.
By Tuesday, however, Mia’s spidey senses knew something was up. After asking me
about 3 different times at breakfast who she was going to hang out with that
day it still hadn’t registered that Jack was NOT on the list of options. So she met Candice at the door in a desperate
attempt,
“Hi, Candice.” She said getting right to the point, “Today is TUESDAY. Are we or are we not going to the gym at the Y today with Jack Jack?”
Shot down for the 4th time that
day.
Wednesday and Thursday mornings didn’t go
any easier. Each time the feigned
ignorance, sometimes she cried. ALWAYS
she pouted. By Friday she was desperate.
“Mommy.” She said to me, taking a different
approach as she was eating her yoghurt, “Jack is coming home from Mexico TOMORROW,
I think, so we are going to have a playdate.”
“Oh,” I replied honestly, not realizing I
was being tested, “I thought he wasn’t home until Monday…”
“Well…CANDICE says he’s not home until Monday
but I SAY he’s home tomorrow.”
I explained to her that if Candice and I
BOTH thought he wasn’t home till Monday we were probably right.
She was exasperated and took it out on her
toast as she flung it down on her plate in a giant huff of rage,
“I have been ASKING for a PLAYDATE with
Jack Jack all WEEK!”
After a quick lesson on appropriate
breakfast table manners, I took a different approach.
“Mia,” I said, “Why don’t we get Toby’s
globe out and I will show you where Mexico is.”
This perked her up.
We got the globe out. I showed her how close together Toronto and
Collingwood seem to be on the globe yet how FAR apart they really are (that
REALLY long car ride where you can watch SIX episodes of Sid the Science Kid
and STILL not be there quite yet!) and THEN I pointed all the way down to
Mexico and explained that it would take over THREE DAYS to drive there. (Which is an inconceivable number of episodes
of Sid the Science Kid…)
Mia’s jaw hit the ground.
Why on EARTH would Jack Jack have DRIVEN that far away!?!?!
I explained that he had actually taken an airplane
but that I was just trying to demonstrate to her how FAR AWAY it is and that we
can’t just go join him for a play date.
NOT SO FAST, Wisecrack.
Why,
then, if Jack Jack had flown there, couldn’t WE just go fly there and join
them?
A tempting idea, granted, I reminded her of
our recent family trip to Florida but promised that maybe one day we could take
a trip with Jack Jack’s family and go somewhere all together.
That seemed to satisfy both of us and we
put the globe away and finished our toast in near silence, until off in the
distance Mia spotted a little boy riding a bike.
“Hmm….” She mused, “Who do you think that
boy is down there, Mommy?”
I told her I didn’t know.
“Well…” she said knowingly, “That bike SURE
does look like Jack Jack’s bike!”
Now it was my turn to throw my toast down.
“MIA!” I said, “That is NOT Jack Jack – he
is in MEXICO that is just SOME other boy riding an orange bike on the trails.”
Mia was not so sure. I suppose we just agreed to disagree as she
got down from the breakfast table, thoroughly disgusted and muttering under her
breath, “Well it looks a lot like Jack Jack’s bike to ME!”
Thankfully we managed to keep the princess
occupied for the rest of the day on Friday. The nice weather helped. In fact, I had all but forgotten
about Jack Jack and his traumatic disappearance until Sunday morning. We were having a lazy day; Rob and Toby were
watching the soccer, I was reading the paper online and Mia was bustling around
collecting things and being her usual busy body self. We weren’t paying much attention to her at
all until she arrived in the basement and parked herself in front of the TV
with her hands on her hips and made an announcement.
Dressed in a summery dress with
princess shoes, a necklace and a fully packed knapsack on her back, Mia smiled from underneath the huge sombrero she had managed to dig up out of the costume box
and announced, “Goodbye! I'm going to Mexico!”
I know I am in the minority of people who think this but I’ll say it anyways…THANK GOD ITS MONDAY.
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| Mia, sporting an authentic sombrero, about the hit the road for Mexico |
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