My wife and son are off on a trip this week, and I’ve stayed behind to watch over our cats. I’ve done this before and every time it is an equal mix of bliss and torture.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. I don’t consider my week-long solitude “bliss” because I enjoy being away from my family. What I enjoy is a reminder of what it’s like to have an entire day to myself to work on art at a pace I dictate, as opposed to a pace dictated by summer vacation or school schedules.
Long before I got married and became a dad, I was fortunate enough to be in a position to dedicate all day to working on comics and other creative projects. I knew how good I had it and never took it for granted, because I knew one day it would end. That freedom of scheduling ended when I became the work-from-home dad, where my work day is poured into the gaps between everything else regarding fatherhood. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a dad, but I do miss that freedom to work at my own pace.
This week-long trip is a brief reminder of that, and I cherish every day I get.
But it’s also torture because I’m a person who needs human interaction to balance out my comfortable solitude, and having my wife and son around feeds that need quite nicely. I like the quiet, but I suspect as the week goes on things will be too quiet around here. Also, I miss those two already.
In reality, this week is going to fly by and they’ll be back before I know it. Then I’ll both rejoice at our reunion and lament the loss of my flexible schedule.
Until the two of them go away for two weeks next month, that is.