Two months ago, Shorty and I booked a holiday to London. It was the first time in more than a year that we had gone for a holiday on our own and we were dreading it. Dreading a holiday is an odd feeling because why dread something you’re paying money to go enjoy?
Well that’s the odd relationship I have with holidays ever since I had kids. On one hand I was looking forward to a good break but on the other hand I knew I was going to miss both Fighter and Penny so much. I didn’t want to go .
The day came and Shorty and I had to put on the courage to leave. We tucked both Penny and Fighter into bed and then hopped on to our night flight to London.We spent about 6 days there in London.
In those 6 days we video called our kids almost every day which made Fighter cry whenever he saw us because he missed us. We talked about both him and Penny all the time and we thought about them every time we saw something that we thought they would enjoy. It was tough… but it was worth it.
It was worth it because it gave Shorty and me time to work on our relationship. At home we’re too busy being parents we forget that we need to be husband and wife too. Heck we’re sometimes too busy to even care about what we individually need and love.
In London we could do all that.
1) We could go watch musicals and not worry if the theater would be an inappropriate place to bring kids (it probably is).
2) We could choose what restaurant to go to based on what we wanted to eat. Not on whether there was anything Fighter would eat.
3) We could sit down and eat at a restaurant and focus on one another. Without having to eat while feeding Fighter.
4) We could walk up and down stairs without having to always look for the closest elevator for our stroller.
5) We could sleep all night without having to worry about waking up to feed Penny or sleep in all morning without having to force ourselves to wake up when Fighter wakes up at 7AM.
Most importantly we had the chance to talk more and catch up on last time. To remind ourselves why we fell in love with each other in the first place.
When we came back to KL we were really excited to see our kids and they were too excited to see us. We dreaded leaving but we’re glad we went and now we’re glad to be back.
So I’m going to share what an old friend of mine told me a few months ago. Go for a holiday and leave your kids! Mommy and Daddy need a break too.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space