Short vacation goes long way for parents

I think we have a new quarterly tradition.

A month or so ago, my wife had this novel idea: we’d send Baby Schanz to day care, “skip” work and have ourselves a childless day.

It was genius. Here’s why.

It could take time to vet potential babysitters. Maybe our daughter doesn’t take to a new babysitter well and becomes a “monster” for this person. 

I use “monster” in quotations because she’s not literally a monster child. She’s a great infant. But sometimes she can be extremely needy and someone who isn’t keen on her cues may not know what she needs.

We’re already paying to send our daughter to day care. Our facility has people we trust, people who already know her and those with whom she’s familiar. It’s comforting for her to go there.

Why pay for an additional babysitter when we already have some built in?

Last week we took that opportunity to play hooky — well, sort of; we burned vacation days — for the first time.

It was glorious.

We dropped our only child off at day care at her normal time around 8 a.m., then hit the interstate and headed toward the Detroit Metro area to do what every middle-aged parent does when they have free time from their children — go to IKEA.

We were on a mission. I have a handful of intricate Lego sets assembled that I now need to protect because they’re just about in arm’s reach of our infant. I will be devastated if she were to knock one off the shelf and it gets destroyed. Therefore, I was looking for a display case to put them in so they’re safe.

I also wanted to get ideas for our house because, as I’ve mentioned in previous columns, our home is lacking decor.

Also, for those who haven’t been — this was only my second time there — IKEA is a really cool store. There are items for every room, and some of the designs are impeccable. I had to stop my wife countless times when she said “I love this” and reassure her that it wouldn’t work in our house.

It’s still a cool place to kill some hours, though.

We didn’t end up purchasing anything, but we did return with a list of items to get at a later date and a plethora of ideas for our home.

After that, we went to one of our favorite fast food places, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, for lunch, and then we had one more stop to make — a motorcycle dealership.

My dream motorcycle is an Indian Pursuit. I’ll never be able to afford one — fully decked out, it’s around $60,000 — but a man can wish, right? I just had to get my eyes on one and hopefully be able to sit on one.

Unfortunately, and rightfully so, the dealership wasn’t allowing people to sit on them.

Someday, I guess.

Following our visit to look at bikes we can’t afford, we decided to cut our excursion a bit early and head home. We wanted to get out of the car and into the comfort of our quiet home.

Chef’s kiss.

And before we went to pick up our daughter from day care, we reflected on the day we just had without parenting duties.

It was just what the doctor ordered: a much-needed break from a few important responsibilities.

For our mental health, I suggested we make it a quarterly tradition.

I’m hoping it’ll stick.