Out of the last 4 months, my husband has been in China for work for about a month. He took a two week trip in early May (after he convinced his boss that he could not leave the country on my birthday, so he left the day after), and he is currently finishing up another two week trip right now (he'll be home in two days). I hate when he's gone. I mean, sure, I miss him, but with Skype we probably end up talking almost as much as we do when he's home, so it's not really that. Mostly, I hate being a single parent. Military families and single parents - you have my undying respect.
I seriously wonder if my son will survive each of these trips. He does, of course, as I would never harm my son, but I did get smart and shipped him off to Grandma's for one night each week this time, so I could take a break from the little tyrant who is acting out because he misses his dad.
This morning, while enjoying my kid-free time, I was doing some chores around the house and started thinking about the things I like while my husband is gone.
1. Because I only ever use the smaller silverware, I never have to sort it when I do the dishes. If there's a fork, it's a little fork. If there's a spoon, it's a teaspoon. No comparing sizes. Also, because I usually only drink water, I have one or two glasses that I constantly use, so there are very little glasses to put away.
2. When I go to do the laundry, there's never a forgotten load already in the machine. Of course, my son's laundry is still in the dryer from yesterday, but it won't be an unpleasant surprise that it's there.
3. Making the bed consists of pulling the covers back where they belong and putting the pillows back in their correct places. I hate his pillows (they're big and heavy and wake me up whenever they touch me at night), so I take great enjoyment of throwing them off the bed at night.
4. Containers always make it into the garbage. For some reason, my husband has a mental block about throwing containers (bottles, milk cartons, etc.) into the garbage. He sits them on the counter next to the garbage instead and it drives me crazy!
But really, that's about it. Sure, it's nice to have a break from those little pet peeves, but in the grand scheme of things, I would rather sort silverware, do extra laundry, remake the bed every morning, and throw containers away myself in order to have my husband home.
We're in the home stretch, and next time I might be serious in my threat to make my husband quit if they try to send him to China again.
