As I watched the hours tick by during the weeks of my maternity leave leading up to going into labour, I knew that I would one day look back at those hours of time spent alone with&= absolutely NOTHING at all to do as paradise. I don’t know that I could ever have conceived to what extent this would be true.Nowadays, I long for that amazing sensation of… boredom. Okay, I still feel bored sometimes, but it’s not the “I’m so bored, I wish I had something to do” kind of feeling. It’s the, “I’m so bored pretending to be Skye from Paw Patrol, I really wish I could do something else… ANYTHING else.”
An hour alone, in which I am free to do absolutely anything I want with no fear of being interrupted or running out of time? It’s why I’m envious of my husband’s time spent in airport lounges!
In retrospect, here are some amazing things I spent an hour doing before I had children:
1- Painting my nails: base coat, colour, top coat. Noticing a few smudges and starting again.
2- Deep conditioning, blow drying and flat ironing my hair. Deciding to wear it in a ponytail anyway.
3- Choosing a movie to watch on Netflix.
4- Wandering around outside trying to catch an insect for my indoor cat to hunt. (Wish I was making this one up.)
5- Lying in bed, deciding whether or not to get up.
6- Scrolling through pattern after pattern, trying to choose my next knitting project.
7- Searching for the most hilarious LOL Cat to share on Facebook.
8- Agonizing over my next move in an online Scrabble match.
9- Helping my Sim character get a promotion/start a family/seduce her roommate’s husband (depending on her #LifeGoals).
10- Selecting the perfect new background image for my desktop.
11- Waiting for a meal at a fancy seafood restaurant (without a sitter on the clock nor a child screaming) only to discover our waiter forgot to submit our order. Whatever! We got free oysters!
12- Trying on clothes at the mall, buying said clothes, trying them on again at home, deciding to return them.
13- Creeping my ex-boyfriends’ Facebook profiles.
14- Searching Pinterest for a dinner recipe. Deciding to order in.
15- Imagining how amazing it would be to have kids.
What fun things did you spend hours doing before you had children?
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Amy S. says
Nothing! Literally. I think I’d faint if I could put on an episode of something, zone out on the couch while watching it, and then realize that the only thing I remember about the episode was the pint of Ben & Jerry’s that I inhaled while watching it. Swoon!
Molly says
I can’t think of how I spent empty time. I feel like I was always busy pre-kids. Now I wish I took more time for me to just “be” when I had the chance.
janie vezina says
cant remember what i used to do