A Swap a Day Keeps the Crazies Away (or something like that...)

The other day I came across a plaque in a gift store that read, "Motherhood means never having to go to the bathroom alone."

Can I get an "Amen!" on that one?

I think one of the biggest struggles of a mom staying home with her children is the lack of alone time (working moms feel this one too). When your boss is under three feet tall and is in your shadow 24/7, a little time alone is to be cherished. I stumbled across a mommy confession recently where a mom admitted to feigning gastrointestinal issues to her family simply so she could escape to the quiet of her bathroom for a few minutes to read a magazine undisturbed.

Feeling the crunch of needing a bit of space to ourselves, a friend and I have recently decided to swap babysitting hours with each other. This is not a weekly swap, but an occasional "Can my child come over to play for a few hours before I go insane?" kind-of deal. Wednesday was Isaac's day to visit my friend and her daughters. When my friend extended the offer, I immediately jumped at the deal. Evelyn would be a preschool, Isaac would spend some time with a dear friend, and I might actually be able to accomplish a task from beginning to end without stopping to play a "quick" game of Candy Land (curses to the peppermint stick card...) or settle a toy dispute.

After dropping E. off at school (She cried. She always cries. Then she always has a blast.), I drove to my friend's house to deposit Isaac. He informed me from the backseat that he would prefer if I just let him out of the car and allowed him to walk up to the house by himself. Apparently he became a teenage overnight and soon is going to be requesting that I drop him off at the corner of the block so none of his fellow preschool classmates will know his mother drove him to school that day. I obliged, happy that my four year old wants some Independence and a bit sad that his baby days have completely faded.

Those feelings of nostalgia completely faded by the time I arrived back at casa de phillips and set about cleaning the joint from top to bottom. There were no kids to sequester to another room (am I the only one who makes the children play in one room while I clean the rest of the house?), no one offering to "help" (they are pretty good at dusting though), and only the sounds of the Food Network were falling on my ears.

I retrieved Isaac a few hours later (bearing lunch for my friend and me) and discovered he had a fabulous time. He even told tales of how my friend had let them play the piano (Bless her heart...and her ears), which placed her in the "coolest mom ever" slot for the day.

We have another swap set up for next week when my friend's middle child is coming to play with E. for the morning. I hope all our baby dolls are ready for all the "love" they will receive that day. Fun times.

Do you swap babysitting services with a friend?