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Hide-and-Seek
My Children's Gift of Solitude By Staci Schoff
But the first time I learned how truly fun this game could be, I wasn't adequately prepared. I hid and they forgot about me. Or maybe they just lost interest it's hard to tell with the preschool set. At first it was nice. I started off with a daydream that I was Maureen Dowd, thin and cute and working for the New York Times. Then I switched to being myself, only 20 pounds lighter, on Oprah, and she was fawning all over my "ground-breaking new book."
But suddenly, out of nowhere, I was bombarded with: What time is it? Don't I need to get the chicken in the oven? I have to get the wet clothes out of the washer. And, gah! I forgot to call the electrician again today! At that point, it wasn't so fun anymore. So I started shouting, "Hello! Where is everyone?" To which they giggled with delight as they ran in to "find" me.
But the next time we played I was much wiser and hid a stash of chocolates and a book (the finest elements of distraction) in my little hiding place in the closet. This time I could get in a quality "read and munch" without worry for all the things I was sitting around not doing. (Hey, I'm not whiling away the day reading "chick lit" and eating candy; I'm playing with the kids!) Now and then they get distracted building a robot out of building blocks or something, and I have four or five minutes of peace. Not exactly worthy of a labor union contract, but these work/socialize/solitude balance issues are still under negotiation here.