Aug. 9th, 2012

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I think camping might be something I suffer through for the kids "enjoy as a family activity." I mean, ok, I can imagine really loving camping with a group of friends or something, too, as some kind of "event." But just camping, by myself, or Grant and I...has rather limited appeal. It also feels lonely, though, because I think of that as something the kids are a part of.

Yet I'm eager for the next time we can do this all together. Sometimes it's hard to untangle these things - I've never really been a childless adult, you know?

There are a few things that my childless adult friends seem to really enjoy that kinda boggle my mind, because, are you serious? You do that for your own enjoyment, in a way that has nothing to do with child education, recreation or enrichment? I WOULD NOT EVER BE EXPOSED TO THAT OF MY OWN VOLITION. Examples include:

-anime
-manga
-geocaching
-going out on nature trails/tours, spotting particular creatures*
-the zoo**
-video games

On the other hand, there are lots of times when my parent friends say stuff like, "Wow, you're a really great mom, I just couldn't do that," referencing things that are totally selfish on my part - I'm just being charitable by including kids! When they're lucky. Such as:

-Harry Potter midnight premieres***
-Going to Santa's Enchanted Forest 700 times every Christmas season
-absurd amounts of grandiose holiday tradition-ing for every holiday
-semi-formalized afternoon tea as often as possible
-having ten thousand books, and reading and reading-to all the time
-walking places and taking really long bike rides

Since I do spend so much of my time involved in kid-motivated activities...many of which are so horrible that nobody lists them as something enjoyable, such as cleaning the disgusting residue around the outside of the toilet that is made up of "having three sons"...I sometimes wonder what I would like to do with my time, if I had more of it. I am getting more of it, day by day, after all. So far I mostly use my new ("sparse yet stealable," I think of it) time to attend college, keep writing, and go on dates with my husband that tend to involve bar/restaurant combos and the beach - or fancy hotels, when we really go all out. Grant and I have also done several art galleries and a day of (awesome!) water sports, and I tend to eat up way too many hours on tumblr, and not enough filling out postcards and letters and talking on the phone. There have been some great hours on the phone with friends in the past year.

I have definitely spent way more time out alone with FRIENDS this past year (even if it was only, oh, 4 or 5 total times) than in the past, and home alone (you know, that one Saturday).

I think I'm going to make it some kind of resolution next year to spend more time going out with friends, and home alone.

And canoeing. I fucking love canoeing.


*I actually have two friends who go out ALONE, FOR FUN, bird watching regularly, and one of them also SNAKE WRANGLES and has a whole reference library about beatles. This fits in great within the context of homeschooling families, but I could not give a personal shit less

**I am somewhat glad on a personal level, now and then, that we're at the zoo, because our zoo has added a lot of cool new things over the years...but I would not just want to go there more than once a decade, as an autonomous adult.

***this is over but I did it like a dozen times between books and movies, over the past few years

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