It's Friday! It's Friday! Oh wait, I'm a Mom.

Okay, so, Fridays used to be this magical day for us, the work week was OVER, we got to chill with our homies at Happy Hour, we knew tomorrow we would be sleeping until 10 at LEAST, Friday just represented all that was good, fun, and exciting in the World. Saturday nights were for suckers (or those who had kids, and had to get babysitters) while Friday Nights were for party professionals. I mean, I remember coming home from happy hour, showering, dressing up, and then going back out for the "real" good times. Geesh, I only worked 3 jobs so I could afford to blow $200 in a weekend, right? Am I right!?

Ah yes. Those were the days. The days of flying by the seat of your pants, no responsibilities, no worries. Heck, if you couldn't make rent, you could always find another couch to crash on for a few weeks until another $600/month place was found. My late teens to mid 20's were all about the good times, my close girlfriends, bar-hopping, "experimenting" and having no regrets.

But life moves on. We slow down, we find that the people we once loved to spend time with have grown distant, we want different things. We realize that guy who has been your best friend, the best listener, is actually a pretty wonderful person through and through. We take a chance, we move in, we start staying in. We still sleep late, but we save our money for vacations or concerts now, for groceries and bills. Friday nights are now about Netflix, or having another couple over for an intimate dinner. And you know what? This is ALRIGHT!

And then....seemingly out of nowhere....BABIES!!! Holy mother of GOD...babies!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know where babies come from...but holy moly! BABIES!!!! It's like one second you're getting pedicures and Starbucks lattes, and the next you're looking for pediatricians and breast pumps! What in the WHUCK just happened here? Yeah, God, I was slowing down, I was turning a new leaf, getting my ducks in a row...looks like it was just in time too! Because in '07, '09, and '11, this happened:

Boom.

Boom.

 Boom.
Seriously. It happened that fast. (No, not really, I am aware of biology and all that, it just really felt that fast.)

And suddenly, Friday nights were more a celebration that hopefully Daddy would be home with Pizza for Friday Night Family Pizza Nights. That we could let the kids go nuts for a couple hours after dinner and then let them camp out in the family room while we ourselves snuck off to bed early. When people called and asked if we could come out for a Friday Night whatever, and we rolled our eyes, chuckled to ourselves..and knew there wasn't a shot in hell...even if we had the money to pay a sitter, we sure as HELL weren't gonna blow it on a night where we'd both be tired by 9pm. 

So even though the anticipation for Friday Nights has changed considerably, it is still Friday Night, it does still beckon in the weekend, meaning family time, birthday parties, sleeping in while under a pig pile of wriggling limbs and sticky faces, and the relief that you have survived another week keeping your spawn kids alive. It's still something to celebrate. Just now, you celebrate at home, holding on to your hard earned dollars and cents, cruising Netflix to find an appropriate movie for you and all the kids. And the truth is, whether you're out on the town or snuggled with your glass of wine on the couch, Fridays are still Fridays. Just the resulting hangovers are a lot less severe.