I learned early on that in order for the kids (and me) not to be devastated every time Quinn walked out the door we would need to have a few "secrets" from Daddy. I came to this revelation one day when we had had a rough day so I ordered a pizza, picked up a movie and sat the kids in front of the tv to eat their pizza. They giggled about this for days... I guess I didn't think about the fact that we had never let them eat in the living room while watching TV. When I asked them why they thought that that was special they responded "Daddy would never let us do that! But, please don't tell him so we can do it next time he's gone!". And so it began.
We made it a habit to have a "pizza-movie night" one night every time Quinn left. A few years after our pizza-movie night secret started, I made banana-pancakes for dinner. It was another one of those things that I did because Quinn was gone and I didn't want to think. I knew the kids loved my banana pancakes and I just thought it was the easiest thing to do. When they sat down for dinner that evening, I was immediately rewarded "the best mom ever" title and they giggled while eating their banana pancakes saying "daddy would never let us have banana pancakes for dinner".
It didn't take long to realize that I could make the smallest thing into a lifelong memory for them by simply making it a special thing we did while daddy was gone. One night Quinn and I were discussing what to do for dinner and Isaac pipes up saying "we could have pizza movie night!" Elijah hits him and hushes him... Quinn played along asking what he meant by that, they both immediately replied "nothing!". If they ever know that Quinn knows we eat pizza in front of the TV and have banana pancakes for dinner, it might take all the fun out of it!
Of course, one day they will figure out that I don't keep secrets from daddy and that he knew all along... But until then, I will enjoy being "The Best Mom Ever" even if it is only on the nights we eat banana pancakes or eat pizza while watching TV! Ya gotta take what you can get!
We used to often have pancakes for dinner when Ernie was gone because he didn't like breakfast food for dinner . . . so it became a special thing when Daddy was gone. You're a wise mom :-)
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