Everything But The Girl

The latest BMB carnival is being hosted by Kelly at You Found Kels Hiding Place. Posts have to have song titles as headings. For my post, it was hard decision with Missing You, Just the Two Of Us and Bye Bye Baby close contenders, but I decided on Everything But The Girl, because for me that is exactly what this holiday will be.

My beautiful daughter is 2½. The first year of her life I didn’t leave her with anyone for an afternoon, let alone over night. In fact I never imagined ever being able to leave her with anyone. She comes with us everywhere we go.

That is, until now…In less than a week’s time, five days in fact, my husband and I will be heading off for a ten-day holiday, staying at the fabulous Le Meridien in Dahab, Egypt (volcanic ash cloud permitting of course). We are, shock horror, leaving our gorgeous two year old behind.

OH-MY-GOD WHAT have I done?!?

We were planning a family holiday but one evening I had a light-bulb moment. Why not leave her at home. Whilst it’s great to go with your kids, you don’t get much time out to properly relax and it’s been a really tough year.

When I put forward the suggestion to my husband – he didn’t look so pleased.

It was a heart-wrenching decision to leave our little girl behind. BUT, it was the right one and within two hours the holiday was booked. If I’d left it until morning, I probably would have changed my mind. It was only after I booked it that I began to think about what I’d actually done.

Then the reality began to sink in.

One minute I’m excited and looking forward to the simple things you don’t get being a parent, like lie-ins, going diving together and sunbathing. The next I feel like I’m being a bad mummy abandoning my baby, a mean mummy because she’ll be missing out, and a sad mummy because I’ll know I’ll miss her so much. Will it be the same as our holidays used to be when it was just the two of us? I bet we’ll spend the entire time talking about her!

She’s got a seriously exciting time ahead of her. She thinks she’s going to a castle, but is actually staying with her grandparents in Alnmouth, a small village north of NEW-castle. Her busy schedule includes a trip to Edinburgh Zoo, swimming and going to the beach. In reality the two year old will have the time of her life, be totally spoilt and probably won’t have time to miss us.

I’m sure I’ll cry – probably more than once!

Some parents wouldn’t even leave their little ones overnight, others think nothing of regular holidays away from their children and still others who would love to go away by themselves, but don’t have suitable childcare. Which camp do you fit in to?

Tagged as: family holidays, holidaying without children, holidays for two