where do you go when you need to get out of the house alone?

[8circles]

And, hypothetically speaking, you are an emotional basketcase from no one problem in particular & none of them are that tragic on their own...

 

Me? I go to Target, get a coffee and shop for 2 hours.

 

What about you?

[LaxMom]

The pub. I go to the pub with another homeschooling mom for Trivia Night and do shots of Jaegermeister.

 

I'm not even kidding.

 

[SJ.]

To the gym, thank god for the gym.

[Berta]

I sit out in my chicken coop and watch my chickens. lol.. it's very therapeutic.

[SKL]

I go out in the woods in my backyard, clear my mind for a while, and then get very philosophical about how life follows the same patterns seen in nature.

[shanvan]

The local Goodwill to browse books, or Barnes & Noble to look through a bunch of books I won't buy (I write down their titles and check them out of the library), or to the library by myself or to Panera for lunch with my mom. I also like my favorite garden center if it's open. Working in the garden or yard does wonders for me too. Sometimes I do go shopping--like today. I was definitely escaping today.

[Tess in the Burbs]

We're allowed to leave the house?!?! Lol

 

Seriously, I often need to leave but can't. I think if I could I would find a good coffee shop or bookstore. If I lived near mountains I would hike, near water I would go sit and enjoy. I did walk out recently and walk down the street. *sigh*

 

The shots sounds fun :-) I need a drinking buddy for that one!

[Whereneverever]

For a walk with the dog. She's a great listener and I don't have to worry about saying more then I ought.

[8circles]

To the gym, thank god for the gym.

 

That would have been a healthier choice. I didn't want to take the time to change or I would have taken a walk or something.

[unsinkable]

Library.

 

Sometimes I just drive.

[Χά�ων]

Sometimes I just drive.

I did this until I couldn't afford the gas any more.

[petepie2]

Go for a run, go to local consignment store & shop....and one of favorites: sit in the van in the driveway and drink a multi-calorie milkshake while listening to my ipod.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Most of the time I'd rather just stay home and they all leave. But I also like MNO's to someplace that serves alcohol and trips to the coffee shop.

[Berta]

We're allowed to leave the house?!?! Lol

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[wintermom]

Go for a bike ride through the trails - spring, summer or fall. In the winter, it's almost more stressful to have to go out in the cold. Getting out for a walk, run, ski or skate is wonderful.

 

If I had chickens, I'd probably hang out in the coop like Berta!! That does sound theraputic - unless there's a noisy rooster.

[shanvan]

Most of the time I'd rather just stay home and they all leave. But I also like MNO's to someplace that serves alcohol and trips to the coffee shop.

 

 

This is what I ask for on mother's day every year--that and I ask them to come home with dinner and a cake. I've been getting the same gift every year for at least 5 years now and it never gets old.

[Beth in OH]

I like to go mow my yard and pull weeds in my perennial bed.

 

--Or--

 

Look through every single rack at Marshall's + Home Goods. Somehow thinking about bargains, outfits, or how I might use some decorative item in my home really gets the creative juices flowing and improves my mood. I rarely buy anything on those trips.

[Murphy101]

I can leave the asylum?!

 

I do physical labor or do a surprise fairy run for someone or go for a long fast walk or swim.

 

I used to call friends to commiserate but I don't anymore. Except dh. Bless his heart, I tell him EVERYthing. ;)

[Alte Veste Academy]

Depending on how presentable I can make myself for the public. :tongue_smilie:

 

I do the Target thing too!

 

Barnes and Noble, sitting at the coffee shop a while.

 

Paradise Cafe for a lunch all by myself, followed by some window shopping.

 

Sit in my backyard swing with an iced tea and read a book. Or cry. The swing is a good place for a good cry. Crying is cathartic.

 

Here, I will often tell the kids "adult swim" and make them stay in the house while I go float in the pool with a book. Or I swim laps (teensy-weensy laps, LOL). We are renting this house though and will be moving in less than a year, so that isn't always going to be an option for me. I'm hoping we will be close to an indoor post pool when we move so that I can continue this. It's a winner. :lol:

[Alte Veste Academy]

I do physical labor

 

Oh, yes. When I am angry (more like ANGRY!!!!!! ;) ), I clean. Funny thing is I am not typically a spectacular housekeeper, so this is a pretty impressive sight. (I once scrubbed the kitchen and dining room floor on my hands and knees, using toilet bowl cleaner and a toothbrush on every single grout line. It was positively brilliant when I was finished. LOL) DH thinks it's pretty funny. I have never been mad enough at him to have gone into one of my cleaning frenzies, and we have had many conversations about how it would actually not be amusing for him to rile me up to get the house in quick order. :lol:

[Alenee]

I go for a good long run, and do it slowly so as to draw it out....... Otherwise, I'm not one to just go sit somewhere by myself.

[YARNacademy]

My local yarn shop....Yarn makes me calm...I'd prefer to send the kid away though. I'd rather be home alone than out somewhere alone.

[Galatea]

If I need something good to read, I browse at the bookstore and write down titles to buy online at home. If I have something to read, I go to Panera or Starbucks and get coffee and a treat and read. Or, if there's a movie I want to see that my husband isn't interested in, I'll go to the movie by myself.

[craftyerin]

I invent errands to run. Target is common, as is the library. A drive thru soda or coffee is almost always involved.

[craftyerin]

dp

[KrissiK]

Grocery store. Walmart.

[Ottakee]

If I can I head out for a horseback riding--either alone or with a friend.

 

If I can't do that I will sit outside in our lawn swing by our little pond with waterfall and watch the horses, chickens, cats, and dog.

[Pod's mum]

The pub. I go to the pub with another homeschooling mom for Trivia Night and do shots of Jaegermeister.

 

I'm not even kidding.

 

Sounds good laxmum, move next to me please.

 

If I'm in town, in a house I do not like and dd is with her dad, I might walk down to a friend's who lost a child the same time I did. I join him in one of his daily drinking sessions, sometimes spend the night on his couch and walk home early next morn.

We don't have to pretend that we are doing well, or put up with lectures on our anti-social behaviour and by now he has realised that even drunk I'll sleep alone on the couch.

We are good safety valves for each other.

 

Otherwise I'm up in our little shed/shack and there are miles of no-one out of every window, so even if dd is talking NON-STOP, I can tune out and just watch the beautiful world and breathe.

[PrairieSong]

I walk early in the morning. I love mornings.

 

[HollyDay]

I walk. If the weather is glorious and we don't have an evening activity, I might walk both early morning and evening.

 

But, now that summer heat is upon us, walking is not a good option for me. I've gone to the library. We have a wonderful section with comfortable chairs looking through floor to ceiling windows overlooking a lake. I've gone to the mall and window shopped the perfume counter. I don't get the opportunity to do either vary often, but when I do, it is nice.

 

Lately, I've taken dc to the local coffee shop. It gets us out, in a pleasant environment and we relax together. Usually someone we know is already there and someone else comes in and we visit.

 

If I had the time and funding, I'd like to go horseback riding.

[Lucy the Valiant]

The beach. If it's off season.

 

Or to my favorite secondhand shop to buy books (this is an illness all its own, LOL).

 

Or for a long walk / jog.

 

Or to an antique store or a really good used bookstore (the kind that used to be a house and the proprietor has a golden retriever and knows where every single book in there is located).

 

Sometimes, if I'm really desperate, I take "mini-me" vacations - for a whole day. I go EVERYWHERE on those days, and - my goodness, how they refresh the spirit!

[tex-bex]

The pub. I go to the pub with another homeschooling mom for Trivia Night and do shots of Jaegermeister.

I'm not even kidding.

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy don't I get to live near you?!?!

 

Library.

Why has it never occurred to me to do this?

 

Most of the time I'd rather just stay home and they all leave. But I also like MNO's to someplace that serves alcohol and trips to the coffee shop.

My fantasy is for them to all go away for a whole day. After all the chores are done!

 

Go for a bike ride through the trails - spring, summer or fall. In the winter, it's almost more stressful to have to go out in the cold. Getting out for a walk, run, ski or skate is wonderful.

If I had chickens, I'd probably hang out in the coop like Berta!! That does sound theraputic - unless there's a noisy rooster.

I also never thought to bike on my own.

 

I feel like I have a whole new arsenal of ideas! :)

[Alte Veste Academy]

Sounds good laxmum, move next to me please.

If I'm in town, in a house I do not like and dd is with her dad, I might walk down to a friend's who lost a child the same time I did. I join him in one of his daily drinking sessions, sometimes spend the night on his couch and walk home early next morn.

We don't have to pretend that we are doing well, or put up with lectures on our anti-social behaviour and by now he has realised that even drunk I'll sleep alone on the couch.

We are good safety valves for each other.

Otherwise I'm up in our little shed/shack and there are miles of no-one out of every window, so even if dd is talking NON-STOP, I can tune out and just watch the beautiful world and breathe.

 

((((((Pod's mum))))))

[ElizabethB]

Usually, grocery shopping or the library. I miss them at check out time at the commissary, though. They are better at self scan than me if I have a small load and for large loads of stuff, I cannot keep up with the checker by myself unless it is the end of a busy day and the checker is tired. (My children are good shoppers, but it is quieter without them.)

 

My husband will take them out to dinner or shopping or fishing to give me a break, I often enjoy a quiet house more than getting out.

[Tap]

Short trip 15 min: (West side) Ross or Tuesday Morning

Mid range trip 30 min: (East side) TJ Maxx and the Ross next door (shopping for the kids)

Longer trip 1 hour: (15 min drive each way) IKEA, Home Goods, Marshall's (shopping for the house)

over 2 hours: (30 min each way drive but each set in a different directions) Penzy's, Nordstrom Rack, TJ Maxx (shopping for me)

OR Cost Plus World Market, Whole Foods, New Seasons, Cost Plus (shopping for the family/food)

 

If I am frustrated with one part of my life, I try to focus my efforts in that area. It is kind of a 'positive thoughts' or 'kill them with kindness' theory of my own mental health.

 

 

If I want to chat out my issues, I go to work if one of my favorite pharmacists are there. He understands my families situation and can handle my honesty. Some people can't handle the things I say and misconstrue them as indifference or unfeeling. He knows it is just the opposite.I can also be a bit crass with my sense of humor and he gets that. He and I can talk in a shorthand that I have with few people. We have worked together for 5 years, and I think that many years of problem solving side by side have led to a bond that I will greatly miss when one of us leave our jobs at some point.

[LucyStoner]

Different things. Sometimes a bike ride and sit in a park on a river by myself. Sometimes I go and shoot hoops at a playground. If I'm really zonked I will drive all the way to my fave Ethiopian restaurant, chat with the owner, get my absolute top comfort foods (vegi combo and doro tibs) and then eat it blissfully alone.

 

I exercise most days so it's rare for me to add an extra trip to the gym when I am in need of me time, but sometimes an outing without the kids is impossible. So then I turn my Y visit into a long mini-break. I get dressed in gym clothes and pack snacks for me and the kids. Then I go to the Y and ditch them in the kid centers. Then I work out for 60-75 minutes. After I am done with that, I sit in the lounge/lunch area until my time is about to be up on my 90 minutes of daily childcare. Then I set them up with their snacks in the lounge- usually my younger son plays with the train table and my older son reads. That gives me another 30 or so mostly quiet minutes to munch my own snack, read or web surf while they play and read. If I time it right and I really just need as much time as possible out of the house, we go swimming right after. That puts us home just in time for dinner. And dinner on a day like that is usually going to be sandwiches or lets-see-what-is-in-the-fridge-'cause-mama-is-so-not-cooking-tonight.

[Heather in Neverland]

I grocery shop. Sad, I know. But it is the only hour of the week that is all mine.

[Melissa in Australia]

I g for a very brisk walk. the more stressed I am the brisker I walk.

[LaxMom]

Different things. Sometimes a bike ride and sit in a park on a river by myself. Sometimes I go and shoot hoops at a playground. If I'm really zonked I will drive all the way to my fave Ethiopian restaurant, chat with the owner, get my absolute top comfort foods (vegi combo and doro tibs) and then eat it blissfully alone.

 

I exercise most days so it's rare for me to add an extra trip to the gym when I am in need of me time, but sometimes an outing without the kids is impossible. So then I turn my Y visit into a long mini-break. I get dressed in gym clothes and pack snacks for me and the kids. Then I go to the Y and ditch them in the kid centers. Then I work out for 60-75 minutes. After I am done with that, I sit in the lounge/lunch area until my time is about to be up on my 90 minutes of daily childcare. Then I set them up with their snacks in the lounge- usually my younger son plays with the train table and my older son reads. That gives me another 30 or so mostly quiet minutes to munch my own snack, read or web surf while they play and read. If I time it right and I really just need as much time as possible out of the house, we go swimming right after. That puts us home just in time for dinner. And dinner on a day like that is usually going to be sandwiches or lets-see-what-is-in-the-fridge-'cause-mama-is-so-not-cooking-tonight.

I feel the same. My daily workouts are great, but they're part of my routine not something I pursue because I'm stressed.

 

And pssssssssst... We extended childwatch to 2 hours last year, so members could take 2 classes or whatever. May want to drop that into the suggestion box. ;)

[Hoot]

I tell the boy I'm going out and leave him to finish his work on his own. Typically, I will go somewhere like the park, thrift store, pet store, or library. My new favorite place is the study room at the library. It's summer so there is no one using them and I can go in with a book for up to 3 hrs. and it is absolutely silent.

[bettyandbob]

1. Long walk

2. Serious hard exercise

 

I used to spend time with Ben and Jerry. They try to be nice friends, but I realized I was having more trouble in a continuing relationship with them.

[FriedClams]

Golf. I occasionally will go with a friend - but usually solo. It's hitting things, and a walk, and nature all in one (and I get to wear a cute skort, too).

[Lisbeth]

Bookstore, the club, very rarely, the monastery. :)

[AngieW in Texas]

Mostly I walk the dog. That is my main stress-reliever.

 

Going to the dog park works also.

 

If I can't do either of these because of the weather, I go to the gym. The library can work only if it's pretty low-level. I need to MOVE when I am really stressed or upset.

[plansrme]

I invent errands to run. Target is common, as is the library. A drive thru soda or coffee is almost always involved.

 

 

I do this also, except I don't so much "invent" as stretch out the time it takes to run legitimate errands. Don't EVER tell my family it does not take 3 hours to buy groceries on Saturday. Or to notice that I frequently come home from "Publix" with newly-manicured nails and toes or with new goodies from Marshall's. Back when we had a Borders, sniff sniff, I could spend hours there.

[MyThreeSons]

What about you?

 

 

Barnes and Noble or the library. Sometimes, Hobby Lobby. I've also been known to wander around The Home Depot or Lowe's. I usually don't buy anything -- I just wander around and try to get ideas.

[Live2Ride]

Outside to the barn to fool with one of my four horses or mess around in the barn doing odds and ends...or out to mow the grass or bushhog the pasture.

[blondeviolin]

I don't get out on my own very often between a nursing baby who won't take a bottle, a deployed (or soon-to-be) spouse, and living away from any family but my own.

 

I used to think it was sad when people went to movies alone. Now it sounds lovely!

[FaithManor]

Option 1 - kick everyone out of the living room (we have a family room so they don't have to be in the same place I am at the same time) and practice Chopin or Debussey for a couple of hours. Always a good option.

 

Option 2 - drive to Barnes and Nobles, get a Latte, sit with a National Geographic Traveler magazine and dream of far off places. This works quite well too.

 

Option 3 - if it is late June, down Blueberry Trail to pick wild strawberries, July, wild blueberries, and August, blackberries. In the winter, in the autumn to watch the birds migrate, and in the winter...well, if it's not too cold, a little hiking.

 

Option 4 - go into the sewing room and work on a quilt. The family may come to ask a question or something, but generally, they do not interrupt much while I'm working.

 

Of course, it's easier for me now that I don't have little ones. The oldest just married and the youngest is 13. They all read my face quite well and have a general idea when mom might be needing some down time.

 

Faith

[LMV]

A few options:

-Go for a run [added bonus: we have a nice trail system within two miles of our house so I can run there and then get in a longer run with nice scenery]

-If I have more time (or if we need to go to the stables anyway) horseback riding can be amazingly grounding. Our stables are about 1.5 hours from the house round trip though so I need to plan ahead a little.

-Sometimes I'll make plans with friends or family to go out for lunch, or to the park or something either so I can talk about life and all it's wonderful challenges or so I specifically can talk about anything but that.

-I will also admit that during the period our oldest daughter was so sick there were days I would lie down with her as she fell asleep and we would both sleep for a few hours (and my wonderful DH would come home think we looked peaceful and just start making dinner himself). Once our younger children were born or came into our lives in other ways this was less of an option unless DH was also home because I can't just leave everyone else to fend for themselves. Fortunately it is also less of an issue as she is doing very well now.