The house is a little quieter this week.
The boys and their best friend are off with my parents for a little RV camping trip up north. A river and a canoe may be involved, as well as the makings for s’mores; plus, they remembered their DSes for those relaxing downtimes by the fire. We expect a grand time will be had by all.
Which leaves my wife and I with quiet time at home together (which is obviously why I’m here blogging right now). Actually, it’s good. First thing, we went and saw Ironman together (the boys had seen it previously with the *other* set of grandparents). Can anyone argue that John Favreau isn’t working rather successfully to set himself up as one of the better genre directors of our generation? And yes, of *course* we waited through the credits!
Then we visited a wine bistro together. Not a place we’d ever have a chance to hit with the kids around. It was very fun, and very grown up (including buying the $15 bottle of wine I enjoyed, only to find it an hour later at Trader Joe’s for $5 – sigh).
The point of this post is about summer, and kids going away: to camp, to visit relatives, to sleepovers down the street, whatever. It’s part of being a parent – those rare, but valuable and somehow slightly melancholy times when our kids go away for a while, and we’re left at home together. Things are quieter, less lived-in. Yes, of course, we’ll have the chance to get the home office cleaned up, but there’s no one to remind to take a bath and brush their teeth (my wife always remembers to do these things herself). So I’m wondering, GeekDad community, are your kids off on any "away missions" this summer, and if so, what are those left behind doing with the free time?
