The Stages Of Getting Ready For A Night Out As A Parent (Even In A Pandemic)
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It’s tough, getting ready to go out when you’re a parent. You’re so desperate for your “night off” to begin, it can be tempting to pour yourself a gin at 9am – even though you’re not meeting until at least 8pm, because nobody can get away until after baby bedtime.
What used to be a relatively simple process before you had kids – shower, shave, makeup, dress, go – somehow becomes a fine art. It’s a meticulously planned out, multi-tasking effort that takes only the most experienced of us to get right.
So, you’re going out on Saturday night? In the midst of a pandemic, things are a little different – there’s a lack of dancing, for sure – but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a BNO (that’s Big Night Out, if you didn’t know already).
Whether you’re going round a mate’s garden for drinks, or heading to your local pub, you still want to get glammed up – especially after spending months in your lockdown pyjamas (just me?).
Here’s the reality of getting ready to go out when you’re a parent.
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5.40am
“Mummy, wake up! I had a scary dream about a chicken.” You look at the clock and groan: it’s not even 6am. How are you going to stay out until midnight (or beyond) when you’ve been up since the crack of dawn?
9am
You’ve been up long enough to tidy the kitchen and make several rounds of breakfast. You start thinking about that first drink. Trouble is, it’s 12 hours away and you’ve got a two hour round-trip, ferrying one child to gymnastics and back again, to get through first... and a playdate. But here’s where step one of BNO prep commences: painting your nails. You only manage a first coat before you have to get the...
