Mom-Guilt vs IKEA (Mom-Guilt Wins)

Earlier today Austin went to the childminder for three hours. It was the longest we have been apart since he was born (while he was awake, at least).

How could anyone not wanna spend all day with this little cutie? — How could anyone *not* wanna spend all day with this little cutie?

Dave is dropping him off in the mornings to save my colleagues dealing with a splotchy, teary mess first thing in their working day.

I am ashamed to say, I never thought about it being hard for him to do the drop-off (my good-wife days are over!) but he found it really tough to leave Austin there.

Rather than spend the childminding time buying lotto tickets so we could afford for me to stay home, we decided to use the three hours to make a run out to IKEA and pick up a replacement lovey for Austin and maybe some baby-proofing gadgets.

This is the haul we came back with.

We just kept buying things. It was like we couldn’t stop. They had sold out of his favourite toy (sob!) so “He’ll like this” became a mantra we kept repeating on every aisle. Usually, Dave stops me from overspending in IKEA, Penny’s and Heatons (anywhere relatively inexpensive is toxic for my wallet!) but, today, he was just as bad – Dad-Guilt.

When we went to pick Austin up, his voice was hoarse from crying and suddenly I didn’t care that parent-guilt had bested us in IKEA. We gave him his new toys and I felt just a little better seeing a small smile on a splotchy, teary face.