Let me start with this: The need for a good girls’ night out (or in) never goes away–no matter what your age is!
As a teenager, sleepovers filled with romantic comedies, junk food, and chats about schoolgirl crushes were the nights we longed for.
OK, the junk food and romantic comedies are still pretty great, even at 32, but I haven’t stayed awake to watch a whole movie in almost five years (yes, that’s right, I’m embarrassingly lame).
In college girl's night meant drinking while getting ready with your ladies, before hitting up bars or a frat party. Nothing beat listening to the song of the week on repeat, while drinking cheap beer, changing and trading clothes multiple times, and doing each others makeup, before heading out for a night that almost always ended with fried egg sandwiches at 2 a.m. and a laugh-filled stumble home.
Now, as a grown adult, girls’ night is a much more coveted and rare event. They don’t come around as often, as I’d like, and when they do, the prep for them and chosen activities are usually much different.
Getting ready to go out has always been one of my favorite “me” activities. That being said, the process has changed quite a bit ever since I was blessed with my adorable, yet needy, little humans.
I always loved putting on my favorite music, pouring a glass of wine, and actually taking the time to do my hair and makeup properly, and, if time was really in my favor, painting my nails to match whatever outfit I leisurely picked out after trying on multiple options.
Now, I spend the first twenty minutes of my prep time waiting for my four year old to pick a show on Netflix, while my two year old yells “no” in disagreement with everything she considers.
Since I only have a short amount of time before they get bored of what they are watching, need a snack, or want to do superman dives off the couch, my prep usually includes a quick hair touch up with some dry shampoo, a splash of water on my face, and a touch of mascara and lip gloss.
I then stare at my clothes, wondering which ones will hide the extra baby-weight I am still carrying around like a prized possession two years after giving birth, and realize that it is likely an impossible quest, urging myself to come to terms with having a little more wiggle and wobble around my mid-section.
I settle on a black sweater, since black is supposedly slimming, and head downstairs.
I tell my husband that I am now off-duty, give my monster babies some snuggles, resulting in snot on my black sweater and cracker crumbs in my hair. At this point, I don’t even care, and assume that all my other friends, also moms, will likely have bodily fluids on their outfits as well. Squad goals.
If we actually make it out of our houses, the usual girls’ night activity consists of dinner and drinks. Usually, it's margaritas at the local Mexican place, and a shared batch of nachos that disappear quicker than a bottle of wine after a particularly difficult day of wrangling and taming toddlers.
The reality of the situation is, that we rarely make it to the restaurant with our whole group intact. With ten children among us, someone usually has a sick kid, or one of us is sick because of a sick kid.
Toddlers are germ buckets, who are constantly spilling their contents, it’s not fun, but wiping noses and cleaning up throw-up, comes with the territory of being a mom.
Sometimes, girls’ night turns into a “moms and toddlers” night, at one of our houses, because that is easier after work and daycare pick-up. We drink wine and watch our children run wild, not worrying about something being broken, because all of our houses are child-proofed beyond belief, and the only thing that could possibly crack or break is our already very fragile sanity.
The thing that really matters most about a successful girls’night is making time to be with the people in your life that get you and who make you feel comfortable to be your true self. If that means supervising a toddler dance party, while preparing mac n cheese, and sipping the pinot grigio someone found on sale, then so be it!
Cheers girls!
For more from Jenna Stewart, visit Motherhood with a Twist of OCD and her Facebook page.
