The 5 Things I Miss the Most from My Pre-Children Days

This post was written by Sarah Fernandez. Photo Credit: Drew Fernandez

Yesterday I looked at my alarm clock and thought how nice it would be to actually need it. Then I got to thinking about the other things I once had or enjoyed prior to having children five years ago and here's what I came up with as the things I long to have once again.

1. My Alarm Clock

I'm not a morning person so it never occurred to me that I would ever miss my alarm clock, but I do. That's because I don't need it anymore due to the fact that I have two small children who make sure that I am up well before I actually need to be to get us out the door in time for school and work in the morning. I can't wait until I need that alarm clock again.

2. Money

It's not as though we ever had a lot of cash to spare, but there's nothing like paying a couple hundred plus dollars a week in daycare costs to realize just how good you had it. We are finally feeling some reprieve now that we've got one child in all day kindergarten at public school, but it will probably take a while before we recover fully from the tens of thousands of dollars we will have spent on daycare when all is said and done. I look forward to the day when we can have a date night again and it's not a big splurge.

3. Day Trips with the Girls

Before we had kids it was no problem when I said to my husband that I was going to head to Boston for the day to go shopping with a friend or hop down to New York City for the night to visit a girlfriend. It's not that I can't still do those things (although #2 above does make is a bit more difficult), but now if I do them, I know that my husband is at home trying to figure out a way to keep the kids entertained and counting the moments until I get home. It's just not quite as carefree and stress free as it once was. I still get time out with my girlfriends, but it's not quite as ample or fly by the seat of our pants as in years past.

4. A Living Room with No Toys Lingering Around It

It doesn't matter how much effort I throw into trying to make our house look lovely or how many toy bins I set up to try and contain the clutter, with kids there are always toys on the floor. It has recently dawned on me that now that my kids are two and five years old, I can actually see an end in sight to having plastic garbage trucks and tool boxes scattered across our living space. They will soon be old enough to spend more time in their rooms or the semi-finished basement playroom, and we may actually regain a grown-up living space...maybe.

5. The Ability to Accomplish House Projects (or Any Projects) in a Timely Manner

There is no doubt that my to-do list has only gotten longer since I've had children. There are so many projects I've planned-fabric in the closet to be sewn, paint in the basement to be applied to walls, and weeding in the garden to be done-but they are so hard to get done when you are limited to doing them during nap times on the weekends, along with all the other things on your regular to-do list like laundry and grocery shopping. There will come a day again when I will come up with a project , purchase the materials, and get it done in no more than a day like I once did.

I certainly wouldn't trade my children for any of these things. I feel very fortunate to have them, and they are well worth the sacrifice of these really minor, although nice, things. And of course while I miss all of these aspects of my life pre-children, I know that when the time comes that I have regained them I will be longing for the days when my children were little and I didn't. As Oprah once said, "You can have it all; you just can't have it all at once."

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