I went out to lunch today with some co-workers - a new and novel thing for me.
It’s not that I don’t want to socialize with the people I work with. I just don’t like to spend money on lunch, is all. (It’s easier to justify the occasional dinner out with the kids or that Friday night pizza delivery if I know I’ve been brown-bagging it all week long.)
And we got into one of those ‘grass is greener on the other side of the fence’ conversations. The married co worker with the demanding small children facetiously talked about the joys of divorce as he imagines it. Or pictured his life with older, more self-sufficient kids. Meanwhile, I thought longingly of the life my happily co-habitating kid-free co worker has - not to mention the freedom you get to do things like go out to lunch with friends every day when you’re part of a two-income couple. And I remembered how much easier it was to parent as part of a team.
(Interestingly enough, the coveting of each other’s lives abruptly stopped when I talked about the Cranky Teen Who Lives at My House…imagine that!)
But after lunch, as I mulled over my envy a bit more, I remembered a few more things I get to miss out on:
- I never have to go to another kid movie in a theater again (taking the kids to the movies is Dad’s Thing)
- I get four weekend days per month where I can sleep in as late as I want to; four weekend nights where I won’t ever have to deal with a sick or nightmare-ish child
- And last but not least, I get to pass on a stomach full of stress that results from that simmering tension when he thinks the kid needs to be handled this way, while you’re equally sure that way is better.
So okay - I may have needed to scrape pennies together to tip the pizza delivery guy tonight after today’s lunch extravagance. But at least I don’t have to cough up for antacids to fight that stress-filled stomach, right?