Family Rules!

Spring in Arizona is a slice of Eden. The weather is perfect, the Sonoran desert is in full bloom, and there’s not a cloud in the sky. So what person with half a mind and relatives in Arizona wouldn’t come for their own lovely spring break? We are lucky enough that every year like migrating geese my sister-in-law and her husband come stay with us for three weeks. It is pretty much my hap-happiest time of the year. For reals the quality of my life improves dramatically. To the point where I weep every time they leave. I’ve actually begged them to come live with us for months at a time once they retire. It’s not a pretty site.

What makes their stay such a source of joy is that I get to play movie star for three weeks. You know all those glamorous women with kids they’ve adopted from Africa, or had surrogates birth for them and their hordes of nannies. I fantasize about what life must be like if you have a one to one ratio of nanny to child – both day and night coverage of course. What it must be like to have your laundry done without having to give your husband the sad puppy eyes. What elation it must elicit when you walk in the door in the evening and you are met by the smell of a home cooked meal. And the school didn’t call you once that week because the few times you ran late someone else was there to get the kids.

My sister-in-law and her husband handle all of this tasks for me and my husband for three weeks – except the birthing the babies part. Oh did I mention that her husband brings me coffee from Starbucks every morning? Take that Angelina!

But while I am waxing on about all the fantastic things our relatives do for us I’d be remiss in not mentioning the day in day out support that my parents give to us. I’m talking school pick up three days a week and shuttle service to and from two different children’s sporting practices. In terms of assistance they are the equivalent of Alice from the Brady Bunch. Dependable like the air we breathe. Except when some of their hippie tendencies flare up and they do something like blow us off for Easter. But I’ll take a lonely holiday over paying a newly licensed teenager to do what they do for us any day.

Because it does take a village after all. And all the things I ran from in my teens and twenties – advice from parents and cohabitation with families – I now hang onto like grim death. So take a minute today and thank all those sisters, brothers, mothers, dads, aunts uncles, and cousins who pitch in and help us working mom’s keep it all together.

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