Just one night?!

We've signed up our children for various, or rather multitudes of, extra-curricular activities for various reasons. Primarily to keep them occupied and get them tired out on someone else's (albeit paid) time. And obviously to give our children the opportunity to become well-rounded individuals while their parents became poorer. Thank gawd for the arts and sports tax credits! It started with swimming and gymnastics because the kids were nicely exhausted and more compliant after a session. But then, the activities started requiring more parental involvement, so that kind of backfired on us. Soccer wanted parent coaches, hockey requires chauffeuring and helping lace up skates, piano requires mom to be there assisting with mistaken notes and counting out the rhythm.
So, when the opportunity came to enrol Devlin and Ceilidh in Cubs and Brownies, we jumped at it. There are already leaders with clear criminal background checks, the meetings require no parental time, just simply drop and pick up 90 minutes later, and the chance to buy as many Girl Guide cookies as Daddy can eat. Oh yes, I'm sure they'll also learn about becoming good citizens, helping others, how to build a campfire, and and all that. Occasionally, there are outings like weekend camps and over night sleep overs. Even better, a night or two without a kid. We don't have any family close by that would take our kids for a night. Not even any family far away that would take the kids. At least, not anymore since my kids have become mobile and verbal. (Really, I do love my kids and cherish every single exhausting moment with them.)
But the nights away are good for all - the "missing" child gets to experience a special event and the remaining monkeys get some special attention from mom and dad.
Last weekend, Devlin had an outing with his cubs troop. He went to the Brampton Beast hockey game, watched a movie at the arena and then participated in a sleep over at the arena, in the private boxes. While Daddy and Devlin took in an exciting game that apparently stretched out to 12 shoot-outs, Mommy and Quinn cuddled and watched countless episodes of Transformers Rescue-Bots, Ceilidh weaved a doll out of the rainbow loom bands and Aisling flitted between colouring and snuggling up against me. It was a quiet, conflict-free evening. (Does that mean it's Daddy and Devlin that create the chaos?) I thoroughly enjoyed it, and nearly fell asleep on the couch, but for the little sticky fingers that kept poking me in the face.
As all four of us (yeah, that's right, mommy and three little people) snuggled under the covers in bed later, Aisling asked, "How many nights is Devlin going to be gone?"
"Just tonight. Why? Do you miss him?" my heart melting at the thought of how close my children are to each other.
"Just one night? Awww, I thought it was going to longer, like a week! That's no fun."