Permission to take leave of official duties

It is summer holidays here, YAY!!! I doubt there are more glorious places in the world than Summer in Cape Town.

 

This it the time for sleeping late, chilling, lying on the beach, reading books, sipping cocktails, eating alfresco. Of course I won’t be doing any of that as I have two small kids and a business to run. However, I will be giving myself permission to take some time off from some of my official duties.

 

1. I won’t log on to the IBM network for THREE whole weeks, YAY!! (the Nurture work continues, but that isn’t work, that is my love and my passion)

2. I won’t stress about the kids watching more than x amount of TV. I won’t share how much X actually is as I am sure my X is more than your X.

3. But my biggest thing is, I am not going to stress about what the kids eat, when they eat etc.

 

Number 1 will be easy to achieve, number 2 won’t be an issue because they are outside most of the time, but number 3! I don’t know about number 3. I think it might be impossible for me not to care. IT FREAKS ME OUT that they don’t eat well. Marko keeps telling me to just relax about, they will eat when they are hungry, but somehow the message just doesn’t get through. But I really am going to try. Surely they won’t suffer any major damage in three weeks of bad eating??

 

What do you give yourself permission to do or not do during your holidays? (if you are doing any of the relaxing, sipping cocktails thing, please be discreet about it, I am pea green with envy!!)

PS You don't get 3 weeks leave a year?  That is only half of my annual leave, I will take a further two weeks off over Easter ;-)

For further information about Nurture Egg Donor Program in South Africa, check out www.nurture.co.za

 

Comments

[Jules]

I give myself permission to hand my 5 month old to my mother, whose house we will be staying at for two weeks, read a book on the balcony, drink a margarita rimmed with salt and not care that Hubby is riling my son up to the point of hysteria. There will be 'staff*' to handle that issue. I promise to smile and nod and close my eyes for the first time in months.
*staff = Nanna and Poppa

[Em]

Well, the weather is different here, so no lounging in the sun for me but I do get more lax with the rules around the holidays. There is too much to do and too much to see and it is such a short time. I especially relax on the sugar intake. It is everywhere and everyone is offering it up to my kids. It is part of the season. That said, January is a bitch when they realize it ends.

Enjoy your summer holiday and your sweet family of four before it becomes a sweet family of five!

[Aurelia]

Lower the amount of formula and whole milk they drink, and they will eat more regular food. (Measure out some in the morning for each child, and then that's all they get. Helps you and them.) Also, stop talking about it. If they know it bugs you, they'll keep refusing just to bug momma.

Seriously.

(Sorry, in case I was unclear,I meant you can talk about it with us on the blog, I just mean, don't when the kids can hear you.)

[Kirsty]

come on - push the boat out! The drinking in pregnancy quota can stretch to at least 2 white wine spritzers! Just stick one of those paper umbrella thingies in, use a straw - and - voila! There's YOUR special cocktail for the summer hols xx. Enjoy!
Me - well, because I have already produced 3 fabulously good looking, intelligent off-spring and have now closed shop - well it's gotta be pina-colados, sex on the beach and a couple of mai thais! Hey - don't shoot me! I've earned it xx

[Deblet]

I relax on the bed times in holidays, during school time we run a military regime, so holidays is bit more relaxed.I try to keep the healthy eating going with lots of fresh fruit in the fridge & not too many chips,sweets,etc but it harder said than done with a hubbie who is an all time snacker!!!Relax and enjoy the holidays and congrats on the new house will have a cocktail or chamapers for you.....ha ha Sorry I am not a big drinker but every time I was pregnant I felt like a recovering alcoholic just dying for a glass

[Dona]

Eat too much. At every meal. Already training...eating a cookie for breakfast as I type.

[Sarah in Ottawa]

Pregnant with #1 (35 weeks today), so to date my vacation avoidance has related to work. Most of my vacations have been immediately after stressful times at work, so I give myself permission to not think about it AT ALL and just enjoy my time with my husband and family.

Also - I am glad to hear that Max is doing well, that Marko is on the mend and that your mother's treatment is set to go. I am sending good thoughts your way!

[Egg Donor (ret.)]

Wait - you get 3 weeks off from work? Like that's normal? People just get 3 weeks off? We Americans do NOT get 3 weeks off. In total, all year, everything added up, we don't get 3 weeks off. I'm shocked.

[kbreints]

oh....summer time.... sounds so very nice while we are f-f-freezing our tushy's off in negative temps and snow!!

[wyliekat]

I have two blissful weeks of holiday time coming up, and I've given myself permission to do absolutely nothing. To be more precise, I've deliberately gone out of my way to make no plans for myself. No household projects that 'need doing', no major outings, no nothing. I'm going to wake up every morning without a plan, I hope. And that's the exact thing I need to do - break from planning.

[Deanna]

Well, I get three DAYS off for the Christmas holiday... My vacation time is five business days, after I've been at the company for one year. I'm told that standard for the region of the U.S I live in. However, we're going to Maui so that should be nice and relaxing.

[Louise M]

I am off work now until January 1 so also enjoying the holiday. Off to Whistler, BC for a couple days before Christmas to do some skiing and soak in a hot tub in the freezing weather.... Sleep times were always lax during the summer break, the only meal I was really concerned about was dinner, the other two were more a "fend for yourself" attitude
(except when they were younger). I am now at 34 vacation days a year (gives me 4 - 8 day shifts off, with the 4 days off before and after, works out to 16 days off, a mini vacation 4 times a year). Heck, with my PTO (paid time off - 17 days a year), my CTO (compensatory time off eg. overtime and I earn about 250 hours a year for another 30 odd days) I sometimes feel like I am never at work... Enjoy your three weeks off with the kids, and have a very merry Christmas.

[suzi no longer in NC, but NV]

I read some where that kids can self regulate their hunger/consumption till they are about five, so feed em when they are hungry and just let it go.

enjoy your holiday, soon-to-be-Mom version 3.0. You've certainly earned a bit of R&R.

Someday, you need to do a post for us Americans who might travel to Cape Town - I would love to come visit but have no idea what to see - you know a "visitors guide" to South Africa, told by a native.

[Ninnibeth]

I allow myself to s-l-e-e-p! The alarm clock is banned every single day! :)

And yes, I get 5 weeks (or rather 25 working days) paid leave every year - that's standard in Sweden...

Looking forward to biting a chunk out of that cake over the holidays, working last day Dec 23rd and starting again Jan 7th - and it's only costing me some 5½ days thanks to all the holiday-days! :)

[Liz]

3 weeks (15) vacation/sick days plus a floating day per year plus holidays. I'll be at my employer for 10 years next August and will bump it up to 4 weeks a year. Ever 7 years an 8 week paid sabbatical. Still not enough down time!

[ruth]

we have what my family calls 'ruthie holidays' - books galore, no tv access (usually we are out of reach of a signal on some remote NZ beach), bed/couch/lounger whenever we feel like it, food on demand, mad card games, swimming whenever, and total chillaxedness.

re the food - why don't you stock up on snacks that are as healthy as poss (i.e. frozen yoghurt with low sugar content, grain crackers and spreads/dips instead of chips, soda water with fruit juice added instead of sweet soda drinks, cheese chunks, peanut butter sandwiches, cream cheese made into a dip with a little pickle etc) and not have the less nutritious stuff in the house? let them eat what they want from the stuff you have available - they won't starve, and you won't feel guilty. and, if they have a choice, they won't feel so deprived. just don't mention that its healthy!

[Anna]

Three weeks off work...yes, I remember when I would do that. Of course, I was still living in Italy, not in the US...one day I'll do it again, it's just good for you!

[Lisa]

I am off for almost two weeks starting next week (one week I will work one day, the next week I'll work two days, so almost two weeks). I will spend half of it traveling/spending time with my fiance's family 1000 miles away, and the other half probably loafing. I have no kids yet, so generally I just lay around and read/watch movies/internet surf when I have time off.

[andrea]

Remind me never to move the USA, we get 4 weeks plus 12 public holidays a year, and even better next year I am eligable for long service leave and will score 14 weeks off at full pay. God Bless Australia lol!

[kaitlyn]

This post makes me want to cry. The view out my bedroom window is several inches of snow, and I will never in my life be able to take more than a week or two of vacation. At least not until I retire.

South Africa sounds lovely.

[Chickenpig]

Hah! I spent my "holiday" during the summer watching two year old twins while being hugely pregnant :) I allowed myself to not stress the toilet training until after the baby was born, since I figured they would just regress anyway. Of course the baby is now 4 months old, the boys just turned 3 and they are still no closer to being trained then they were 6 months ago. Time for my "holiday" to end.

Oh, and I had to attend my cousins wedding while 8 months pregnant...and try to control two crazy 2 year olds that don't care about weddings. Not fun. And D got his finger pinched in a door nearly cutting the tip off, and my neighbor had to hold the poor baby on her lap while he got X rayed since I was 8 months pregnant and counting. Happy Days! I always care about what they eat, though, since N is roughly the size of a postage stamp and eats about a pea size amount of sustenance every day. I have to make sure that pea is tasty AND chock full of nutrients or he will blow away.

[Cassey]

holidays are all about sleeping late, avoiding the gym and not feeling guilty about doing nothing..........wow 3 weeks leave with another 2 weeks to come awesome for you.......it's times like these that i miss being a student
enjoy the doing nothing
:)

[El]

Well, I'm unemployed, so that's like a year-round holiday, right? (HaHaHa. Oh I am the funny one. heh).

I have two eaters (the boys), and one non-eater (the girl). But she actually falls on the eating disorder spectrum (she's nine), so that's rather different from ordinary food struggles.

I would say try not to stress about it. Look at what they eat over the course of a week, rather than just one day at a time. Are they healthy? Growing? Not getting sick 'too' often? Then they are most likely doing just fine. Then, too, making sure their only options are healthy ones makes a difference too. If it isn't in the house, they can't eat it. (Not saying anything against your food shopping choices! *smile* Just a general statement).

[Kimberly]

My company is very generous, for being here in the US: I get 4 weeks vacation (but I can't take more than 2 weeks at once time), 3 floating personal days, and seven holidays off. We get Christmas day and New Year's day. Anything else gets filled in with vacation days.

I won't get five years until I am here 20 years, though. I just made 9 years, and as I work for a newspaper, I doubt we'll be around for 11 more years.

[Christa]

My kids are almost 18 and almost 21.
If I had my time again I would put out the same food for them, that we were eating.
If they didn't want eat it, they could go without.
I so wish I'd done that.
It's a parents instinct to give their child nutrition and food is the one thing a child has complete control over.
It's a battle nobody wins, hence what I would do if I had my time again.
My two were incredibly fussy and still are a bit.
I think if I'd been nonchalant about the food issue...there wouldn't have been one.

Love to your mum.
Best wishes and enjoy your holidays.
Christa x

[jen w]

3 weeks at once? Wow, no not the norm here. That is called a leave of absence... :)
I am a mom that never worries about what my kids eat. Maybe I'm too lax. I have friends who are definately obsessive, allowing 1 small treat per day, never 2 and always making sure they eat exactly 3 meals and 2 snacks at scheduled time. Not me at all. We have mealtime and the kids eat if they are hungry. IF they don't eat, that is fine. IF they are beign picky, they have to try one bite. I never punish by holding back treats. And m;y kids aren't obsessive about sugar as other kids are. I had parents that regulated everything I ate and very much limited sweets. I find that I am more obsessive about sweets now and feel that is why. I do offer healthy food, don't get me wrong but we also have a lot of freedom as far as when and how much the kids eat.

[Carrie Jo]

I do get a 3-week xmas break. Of course it's cold & rainy here, so I give myself permission to watch TV in bed until noon and read as many non-school books as I possibly can.