Mom's Night Out
by Alana Morales

Last week I had a Mom's Night Out in celebration of the release of my first book Domestically Challenged - A Working Moms Survival Guide to Becoming a Stay at Home Mom. The party was great, but I was shocked at how little the moms that attended got out. I was even more shocked at how many of my mom friends didn't get to go because of sick kids and such.

Why is this? Why are moms so much less likely to go out and do things on their own time? As I write this, my husband is at Poker Night. Many wives get mad when their husbands go out, but I welcome it. Don't get me wrong - I love my husband, but it is amazing what I can get done with him gone.

I don't think this is the same for other moms. Many of the moms who missed the evening's festivities had sick kids at home. Dads were home, but the moms didn't want to leave the sick kids with them. Why is that? We all know that moms are different than dads, but why is there this big of a difference?

I know that dads don't do things like moms do, but at some point we have to let it go. There were moms who hadn't been out in years. That isn't right!

To prevent this in the future, I am creating a Mom's Night Out pledge. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me:

• I, Mom, make a commitment to find an activity to do BY MYSELF at least one time a month.
• The activity I choose will NOT include making emergency runs to the grocery store, Target or WalMart.
• I will find other moms to get together with on a regular basis, even if it's only for lunch. This has to be a KIDLESS lunch. Bringing even one kid, no matter how young, makes this pledge null and void.
• It doesn't matter if my husband doesn't think he can handle the kids for an amount of time. He can. If I don't think he can, I need to teach him.
• If he whines, I will tell him to deal with it. If I can be on call and on demand, he can be the sole care provider for a few hours.
• Whether I work outside the house, at home or stay at home, I am entitled to have time to be myself. This will allow me to be called by my first name for a change.
• I will not feel guilty for having time to myself. I am good enough, strong enough and…oh, wait.

OK ladies…are you willing to take the pledge? If so, email me at pledge@alanamorales.com and let me know what you plan to do. I will post about this at my blog as well (www.detheblog.com), which will give us some accountability. I mean, if it's written down in public, we have to follow through, don't we?