Short-Term Abandonment of Your Loved Ones May Help Your Mental Health
Shake up your family dynamic with ‘strategic absence’
Motherhood is never easy, but this time last year, I hit a particular low. That afternoon, I was working on an assignment in a café when my son woke up early from his nap, crying inconsolably in his stroller next to me. I hurriedly packed up and went home only to realize when I got there that I’d somehow neglected to save the essay I’d spent all afternoon editing. It was gone, as was my phone. I’d left it at the café.
Not a big deal — I called the café, they’d found my phone, I could pick it up in the morning — but after a year and a half of nonstop, intensive parenting in addition to working as often as I could, the situation broke me. That night, I locked myself in the bathroom and sobbed. I was exhausted. Parenthood had motioned a nonstop litany of responsibilities into my life. There in the blessed silence, I calculated my escape. Maybe I could rent a hotel for a night or two, or hop on a plane and visit a long-distance friend. How long could I be away before it’d be considered marital abandonment?
Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and am relatively happy in my marriage. But I’ve rarely had a moment to myself since the birth of our son. The longest I’ve been away from my husband…
