My friend Julia and I love to meet for dinner once a month without husbands or kids. We usually go to the same Chinese restaurant and order the
same dishes. It’s really not about the dining experience; it’s about talking and laughing and catching up. It’s about completing sentences without being interrupted.
I know married couples are supposed to do this — get away from the house and the kids and the chores, have a date night. But frankly, my husband and I rarely get around to it because we have to book a babysitter, choose a mutually agreeable restaurant, and think of things to talk about. We are easily irritated and actually prefer staying home to enjoy a movie and ice cream after the kids go to sleep.
Going out with a friend is less stressful. My loving husband is often ready to take on our four kids and Julia’s two for a night of pizza and cartoons. So we girls have two hours just to relax and be the people we used to be before we were moms. Occasionally, over egg rolls, we even end up talking about literature or something we learned in college before chauffeuring kids to lessons, setting up play dates, and nuking chicken fingers put our brains on intellectual pause.
When the kids were little, we had a Friday morning club. Four or five moms would meet at one mom’s house, and it would be her day. Say there was a kitchen stool to be painted, a crib to dismantle, copy to be
Susan Konig’s new book, I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family (St. Martin’s Press), is now available at book retailers and at Amazon.com. The Konigs’ radio show, “Speak Now with Dave and Susan Konig,” can be heard Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to noon EST on The Catholic Channel, Sirius Satellite 159. Readers are invited to e-mail Susan Konig at sbkonig@aol.com.
