Ticket to Ride – Or Not

My husband and I have been made an offer that we shouldn’t refuse: My mother-in-law has generously offered to take our two kids for a weekend this summer so we can visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law in New York City. A weekend in one of the greatest cities in the world, sans toddler and baby? That should be a no-brainer. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, please. And thank you.

And yet, it’s an offer that is not so easy to accept. My hesitation has absolutely nothing to do with anyone but me: The thought of being away from Lucy and Isaac for that long gives me this huge, panicked sucking feeling in my sternum. It makes me think of the Iron Man movies where Tony Stark has that glowing nuclear thing in the center of his chest (which Wikipedia tells me is officially called an “arc reactor”). Just thinking about how I would miss putting the kids to bed for two nights in a row, or that I wouldn’t get to put pigtails in Lucy’s hair for a whole weekend or watch Isaac scooch around the house trying to eat things he shouldn’t makes me feel desperate and sad.

I should be giddy about the prospect of a 48 hour getaway. We have been wanting to visit Joe’s brother and his wife in New York, but haven’t been keen on taking the kids – they’re still so young and have so much stuff required to get by and I’m nervous about using cabs that don’t have any car seats for the children. Their  grandparents are 100 percent capable and loving caretakers and we are very lucky to have family members so close by who are willing to give us parents more than our fair share of breaks. And our kids seem to be just fine with us leaving them for a date night or even an overnight trip, like the one we took to Washington, D.C., last winter.

So it seems like I have two choices in front of me: Either I’m just going to have to get over myself and enjoy a trip out of town, or I need to accept my over zealous mommy side and embrace it. I’ll let you know how it turns out.