Vacationing

Patrick finished his last day of work before his parental leave today. He is taking eight weeks off. He deserves the break and he only gets to be Lizzy's daddy once. Still it is hard for me to encourage him to take the time off since it cuts directly into my work leave. In the three plus years we have lived in Edmonton his longest vacation has been two weeks. If work was a joy for him it wouldn't be so significant, but his job is a constant trial. This is going to be a good time for us.

I was thinking about vacations last night. I have concluded that the vacations we get while in school and collage actually work against us. When we finish our educations we emerge with the expectation that we are entitled to a solid eight weeks off a year plus the occasional one or two week breaks. It we could expect that in the real world it wouldn't be so bad, but we can't. The first time I was stuck working through the holidays I was shocked to put it mildly. In my job the days of the week have much less meaning. Weekends are not times to sit back and chill out. They are actually the times when we have to pick up the pace. Summer vacation now means that I will be hot and sweaty while I work. Not, as I often wish, that I can just hang out.

To have endured three straight years with just short little vacations at his first career job is very grown up of Patrick. I guess that with being a daddy now it is a good thing that he is grown up and responsible. I guess I am just trying to say that I am proud of Patrick.

Terri