Mommy Time

It's a new term, "Mommy Time" I don't remember it from my Mom, nor do I believe it was a concept that occured to me when my big ones were little and I was a mommy...I wonder why they have it now and I never did...? It would have been nice.
Maybe my class of Mommies were raised with that "service-minded" Peace corp mentality..children were our gift, we put them first and focused on their every Spock-dictated whims, lest we would cause them some strange and lingering pyschological damage, or worse, risk losing their friendship and respect for us...
The "mommies" we became, and I mean me, were programmed somehow to put our little babes on lofty pedestals, in a devoted, parent-sacrificing playpen, where we clucked and chatted about our little angels development, under our ever watchful and increasingly book-guided child rearing...there were no nannies, no or few babysitters, and grandparents filled in when we fell ill, or were forced to leave our precious children to become"working mothers" (god-forbid). We wouldn't dream or condone of a culture which allowed the Mommy to take a time out from the children, unless hospitalized or worse.
There were no designer babies, born at will and convenience of the Mommies...we waited, prayed and hoped for our wanted babies...and in that mind set it was untenable to do anything but dedicate ouselves to them and their every need and want...we were the pre-Mommy Time-Out Mommies... we mostly still hadn't burned our bras or learned who we were and what our own talents and needs might be...we were the post-war, post-hippie, Camelot generation of Mommies...WE had our Mommy Time Outs as Grandma's and it was almost too late.
We watch our daughters having Mommy Nights, Play dates, Nannies, tennis and golf lessons, spa days and more...while the little babies we waited to grandparent were postponed almost unbearably longer than we thought healthy, and then watched them arrive in timed, scheduled and synchronized bundles, before and after an incredible amount of "mommy times and Mommy time-outs, ladies nights and career-minded decisions...what had we missed?
Our babies and children never knew the electronic era...we didn't text or email, the kids had no DVD's Wi or DS; we were reminded not to be on the phone if the children needed us, and we weren't off duty until they slept, if they did. Mr. Rogers was our role model of dedication to children and sesame street taught us how to make them smarter....but we were still hands on..stay at home was the norm, and we waited to begin our lives and Times until they left....
BUT...they came back, and we now had to fight back the urge to follow them around and sacrifice our well-deserved Mommy Times for the needs of our grown "children" ....Next, I will soon need a nanny...for Me, for it will be the new "Mommy Time"...a time out...for them... from their own tired Mommy...;(
The mommy time "right" is about to be bequeathed..... upon us!