Adventures in Camping: Life on Planet Mom

Two years ago I joined my church’s MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) program. The theme that year was “Life on Planet Mom.” The idea was that we’ve spent our whole life on “Planet Me” and then, once we became mamas, we moved to “Planet Mom.”

I had two “Life on Planet Mom” moments this past weekend. 

My husband and I celebrated our fifth anniversary on July 1^st.  We decided a few months ago that we were going to go camping in honor of the anniversary and made reservations, as well as plans for our sons, George and Patrick, to attend “Nana-Papa Camp” at my parent’s house.

People asked if it would be hard to leave the boys for three nights. To be honest, though, John and I leave our kids all the time. Okay, that sounds bad. We do, however, value alone time and our families see the importance too, so often they offer to take the kids for us. While the initial goodbye is hard, I’ve never cried over leaving them for a night or two—not even the first time.

Something was different this time though. When I called to check-in, Patrick yelled out “I want to talk to Mommy” and then began to cry. I’m not sure if it was his tone or if it was the tears, but my mommy-heart shattered right then and there. Suddenly, Planet Me and Planet Mom collided and I felt the earthquake on both sides.  One part of me knew this trip was exactly what my marriage needed; the other part of me would have run through fire to get to my boy.

Thank goodness I couldn’t get to him, because I was right: this is what John and I needed. And, as a matter of fact, it is exactly what Patrick needed too. He had a great time with Nana and Papa and even cried when he had to leave their house.

My second “Planet Mom” moment came in the middle of the night. For those of you who are familiar with tent camping, you’ll understand what I mean when I say the walls of a tent aren’t thick. You can hear everything and everyone around you (which is why we choose wooded campsites, but more on that in a later post).

At around 4am, I woke to the sound of a baby crying.  Without thinking, I started getting up to help. In my mind, I’m a mommy, so when I baby cries, I go.  As my head cleared, however, I realized that the crying child wasn’t mine and that his mother probably wouldn’t be impressed by a stranger coming to help.  After this realization, I fell right back to sleep.  About an hour later, when the baby cried again, I just reminded myself “that’s not mine” and drifted peacefully back to sleep…for five more hours. As much as I like being a mom, it was great to not deal with the crying for once!

This weekend was another reminder that my life is completely changed now that I’m a mama. Trips are no longer easy. Not only do I have to pack my belongings, I have to pack my heart up too…it’s not going with me, it’s going with my boys. And sounds aren’t the same now either. What once would have annoyed me (seriously, who lets their kids cry in a public place in the middle of the night), now sets my body in motion (oh dear! That baby is crying. I need to help!). So long Planet Me. I’m fully living on Planet Mom now.