Respite - For Fun and Necessity

Respite. According to Oxford Languages, respite is, "a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant." I guess parenting Teddy counts as something difficult, at least a portion of most days, so we do have respite built into our care plan for Teddy.

Respite is intended to give us a break from being the primary caregivers for Teddy. In an ideal world, we'd use our respite time to do amazing things together as a couple or with AJ to give him some dedicated attention. (So ideally we'd use respite to go to Pictured Rocks ... that's an ideal use.)

The reality of life is messy, though, which means respite isn't always used because we simply can't coordinate or juggle the hours with a provider. Or in the first years of COVID, we went nowhere and did nothing, so there was no place to go. 

Although I'd love to use respite for date nights and fun adventures with AJ, sometimes it simply allows us to do the things that other families can do. The other weekend we used a bit of time while Sigrid occupied Teddy, so that I could catch up with an old friend from Spain while Dave fished. Simple things that wouldn't require respite for most families, but it's impossible to have an in-depth conversation while supervising Teddy. 

This past weekend, we used a couple hours of respite to go to church (and not even our own church, although I've thought about that and probably should do that). Our goddaughter was being baptized. My friend assured me Teddy was welcome, yet I knew we'd spend the entire time literally wrestling him and make quite the spectacle of ourselves. When I saw the giant cattle watering tub for the baptisms, I was convinced we made the right call. I can guarantee you Teddy would have baptized himself several times over before the service was over (or possibly even started).

So while it's not the most glamourous use of respite time, it allowed us to be present in those moments. That makes it worthwhile. And, yes, church with Teddy is both difficult and unpleasant, so it does fit the definition of respite.