Is your child-free time restricted to nursery opening hours and the occasional Saturday night (if your sitter is available)? Then you may be seriously envious when you read about Rachael Finch and her husband.
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Finch, who starred in the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars and was third-place runner-up in the 2009 Miss Universe Pageant, has a 2-year-old daughter, Violet, with her husband, Mish. And Mish has pretty awesome parents, because they have Violet to stay every weekend.
“I think that’s incredibly healthy for the relationship,” Finch said of the arrangement. “And on Sunday, when we pick her up, we have 100 percent energy back.”
OK. No kids, all weekend. Ever. Sounds pretty incredible, right?
Absolutely — if that’s what you want. Because, believe it or not, some parents don’t want to have weekends free from their kids. For many of us, that’s the only time we relax en famille. No school, no homework, no early rises, no rules. We can kick back and have fun. PG-rated fun, perhaps, but fun nonetheless.
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That’s not to say Finch’s routine is worse. It’s just different. As she says, she gets her kid back on a Sunday night and feels refreshed and ready to put her mommy hat back on, after two days of child-free time. Come Monday morning, she’s probably fresh-faced and raring to go, while all the seven-day-week parents struggle to slide their weary bodies out from under their duvets.
Finch is lucky that she has in-laws willing to share so much of her daughter’s care. Many parents simply don’t have that luxury. But let’s not criticize her for her choice, because her child is spending two days a week with grandparents who love her. At the same time, if you don’t have that luxury, take a moment this weekend to appreciate the down time with your kids. Watch a movie. Have a water fight. Bake cookies. Do all the stuff you can’t do when school and work get in the way.
Ultimately, make the best of what you got, because it’s all any of us can do — and our kids will reap the benefits.
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