Why you should send your school age children to sleep away camp...

Despite a little hiccup last week involving a kid at the camp infirmary, the first week of having no children in my house has been amazing.

Did we go to Europe? No. Did we re-decorate the house? No. Did we host elaborate dinner or cocktail parties for our glamorous friends? No.

What did we do for an entire week without minors living under our roof ?  Pretty much nothing and it was glorious.

No carpooling. No yelling. No breaking up stupid arguments. No mountains of laundry. I ran the dishwasher once instead of 7 times.  No $300 visits to publix. Sure I miss their little teenaged faces, but I know from past experience, that once they are home for five minutes, it feels like they never left.

The summers when my boys go to camp is a flashback to the early days when my husband and I were newlyweds. Luckily we still like each other as much as we did 20 years ago so it is joyful. I suppose if we were not getting along, or worse, it might be lonely. Fortunately, we are still kicking it as a couple so the month that the kids are not here is fun, fun, fun.

For example, my husband was home early tonight so we walked down the street to a Mexican restaurant and had chips, guac and beer (at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night! ). If you don't have children living under your roof, this may not seem amazing, but trust me it is. During the school year,  6 p.m. on a Tuesday night is the bewitching hour and bedtime seems days away. 

I am enjoying the silence and respecting the lull (while simultaneously cruising the camp photo website to try to find a glimpse of either kid and then analyze the photo to death). Besides that little mental problem of mine and thousands of sleepaway camp moms, summer is delightful right now.