I’m fortunate to work for a company (Sumo) that takes bi-annual
retreats.
Going into the job, I had no fucking clue how important getting away from the
wife and kid would be for me.
These trips have continually been a time of personal growth and if nothing else,
give me an opportunity to hang up the day to day responsibilities of being
a father and husband.
You lose sight of how important it is to get away and recharge when you hadn’t
done so for nearly a decade prior.
These trips have been so important to me, that I started to encourage the wife
to take at the very least an annual vacation without myself or the kiddo.
In fact, I encourage not even talking every day / evening just because I feel
the most important part is getting away and not needing to be on deck. Trying to
schedule phone calls around enjoying yourself and relaxing can be stressful and
let’s be honest here, after a couple of days there’s really not a ton of talk
about.
Unfortunately, I’ve faced a few problems with encouraging this type of
non-family vacation / getaway for the wife.
First, it’s been hard for the wife to find people that can take the time off the
way she’s able to.
Not only do most adults not take ample vacations, but they definitely don’t take
them without their entire tribe in tow.
I think it’s great that people value their time with the families, but let’s get
real here, everybody wishes they could just get away sometimes.
There’s not a damn thing wrong with that.
That leads to the second problem I’ve faced with the wife. She has had a hard
time wrapping her head around the fact that the trip itself, just getting away,
is where the value is.
She got hung up on where she wanted to go. Is it this place, or is it that
place? Is it going to be safe there? What’s the weather going to be like?
I mean this in the nicest way possible, GET A FUCKING MOVE ON ALREADY!!~!
The destination is hardly the point. For me, I could be holed up in a motel a
few blocks from the house for a week and still get a lot out of the situation.
It’s not about the destination, it’s all about getting away for a while.
Not as major of a concern as the other two points, but there’s also that
worrying that mom’s do when they are away.
The dogs always get fed, the kiddo too and we haven’t burned the house down.
My wife’s on her little vacation right now and all is going well. Seems like
she’s having a great time, and hopefully will come back recharged and
reinvigorated.
Also hoping that she’ll be a bit more on top of the planning / budgeting of her
next vacation so we can ship her off for a full week!! 😉
