Mom life, Dad life, it’s stressful.
Being a parent is probably the most stressful job on the planet. Being a parent to a toddler with a mind of his own… that’s just crazy. Our lives are a bit different than most traditional husband and wife teams. Not only are we married, but we also work together. Not only do we work together, but we are entrepreneurs running our own business’ and technically Brandon is my boss. So, we have a bit of a weird dynamic. We’ve been feeling like we’re in a bit of a lull lately. There is so, so, so much going on with raising our son, planning our wedding, working and blogging life – like we just need a break from everything. For the love of self-care and take a mental health break, we need to spend some time, how do I say this nicely… alone.
I think one of the worst things you can do as a parent is to not take a break. Parenting is hard, as much as I love my son to the moon and back, parenting is hard. We’ve dedicated our lives to making sure this tiny human is taken care of and is having a better life than we did growing up. But, it takes so much energy every day to care for our toddler that we barely have any time for ourselves. We have not had more than 12 hours alone together since before our son was born. We’ve each taken time to get our sanity back, but it’s always been separately. So, I decided that this year for our anniversary we are going to take some time for just us two to be together.
Watersports All Day Adventure with Sebago Tours
Are We Bad Parents for Wanting to Get Away?
As soon as I booked our tickets, I felt really guilty. Then, leading up to the trip, I kept telling Logan that mommy and daddy are leaving for a vacation for 1 week. I kept hearing the sweetest ‘can I come?’ and holding back tears every time I had to say sorry only mommy and daddy are going. I felt REALLY guilty okay.
But, there comes a point where I had to think about what life would be like if we didn’t take a minute to ourselves. If we’re spending 100% of our time with our son and never getting a break to be alone together, what kind of marriage is that? We have our problems and miscommunications, just like every couple, and most of our problems come from a build-up of stress and mental exhaustion. Before I booked our tickets I could feel a bit of a strain on our relationship. We were starting to get really snippy at each other and preferring to spend our free time apart. We needed some time to be together, without having any worry’s or stress.
A few days into our trip and we’re well rested (after not having to sleep in the same bed as a toddler who loves to kick us in the face at 2 a.m.), getting some much-needed vitamin D, and having so much free time that we can have fun! When we go out on date nights we’re always on a time crunch because we don’t want the baby sitter staying too late, but we’re here for 8 days, we can literally do anything we want!
About Our Trip
Snorkeling at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
Watersports All Day Adventure with Sebago Tours
I started planning a few months ago this amazing trip to Florida. I’ve always wanted to visit Key West – I’m always seeing and hearing stories about how it’s the most beautiful little island. I thought it would be really fun for us to rent a convertible and drive through and see all the islands the Florida Keys has to offer.
We’re currently in Key West (we just drove in yesterday) and we’re staying at The Southernmost Beach Resort. We just spent the most amazing day out on the water with Sebago Watersports. We love trying new things and being really adventurous when we go on vacation. Since we’re baby free on this trip, we really needed to take full advantage with a full day of fun in the ocean. Our day started with parasailing 300 ft over the Key West coast. Then we headed back to our boat for jetskiing, banana boating, paddle boarding, and of course lunching. After all that fun, we headed over to the most beautiful coral reef I have ever seen. This is a trip of firsts for us, we’ve never been snorkeling before and are both a little afraid of open waters. We headed to the Gulf of Mexico and snorkeled over the third largest coral reef in the world. Honestly, this day was the high of my trip so far.
I think this has taken us back to that honeymoon phase at the start of our relationship. Where we didn’t have any commitments or responsibilities and we could just have fun and enjoy each others company. We’re literally sitting on a big bed right now sharing a classic slice of Key West Key Lime Pie with some vanilla ice cream.
In Islamorada at Hadley House
Our New Rule
We’re not going to let us reach that boiling point again. When I’m literally sweating from the mental exhaustion booking a vacation that we so badly need. I found this sweet idea on Pinterest that we’re planning to stick to from now on:
Every 2 weeks, a night alone together.
Every 2 months, a weekend alone together.
Every 2 years, a week alone together.
Couples need to take breaks to be coupled. It’s difficult when we mix kids into the picture, we stop being there just for each other and we start being there for the whole litter of kids that we created. It takes work and dedication to be in a successful marriage. We’ve been together already for 7 years, and I can testament that it isn’t easy. One of the most important things that we can do is to be positive role models for our kids. So, if taking a break from them to work on our relationship is what it takes then, that’s what it takes. I would rather show Logan what a healthy relationship looks like that have him experience divorce because his parents were washed out and didn’t take the time to appreciate each other.
In Islamorada at The Fisher Inn
