The legislature is gearing up for session and we are officially hunkering down at home!

Actually, the kids and I love this time of year. Last night, we had breakfast for dinner. This would not have flown with our Senator. He is a meat and potato kind of guy at the dinner table. He likes his routines. The rest of us, we are easy. Maybe this is a result of having to be flexible. That can be debated.

However, when he was new to the legislature the kids were so sad he was frequently not with us for dinner, they took an old card table and converted it to a three person table because his empty chair made them depressed.

Now, when he has more pressing “official” business, the children and I have an “official” party of our own. Call it survival, call it pathetic, call it whatever you want, but I have chosen to stay on the upside of being a legislative widow. We make our own fun, our own dinner and it is usually on our own time!

There are debates among legislative wives on who has it easier when the legislature convenes. Is it the wives whose husbands travel hundreds of miles to work at the Capitol? These guys rent an apartment in the City and return home for long weekend visits then head back to the Capitol to start the process over again?

There is an upside to that formula. Inevitably, while the legislators are gone it would be easier to establish a routine. Moms and children are used to the empty chair at the table and one simply plans accordingly. Now, that does not mean it is fun when daddy misses your piano recital or basketball championship game, but there is always YouTube, right?

On the other hand, is it those local wives, who live within fifty miles give or take from the Capitol, whose husbands are in and out at all times of the day and night? Even though they are home, their chaotic schedule wreaks havoc on any type of daily routine. They are there at the end of the day (or their day) to sleep in their own bed, but is it cool to walk in horribly late to that piano recital as opposed to missing it completely? You decide.

There have been some days when my Senator has returned after the children were asleep and left the house prior to their waking up in the morning. This makes for an interesting discussion over breakfast.

I have talked at length about this with my legislative spousal friends and the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I am sure we would love to trade places just to see for ourselves what situations the other deals with on a daily basis. Did I just call for a Legislative Wife Swap?

One thing is consistent, however, and that is regardless of geography, every legislator and his family has the constant demands of their constituents, ( a group of voters who elect someone to represent them). And, that is a topic for a completely separate post!

O.K. children, time to say goodbye to dad for a while! Just remember our vocab word for the day: constituents. Using it in a sentence: You are daddy’s constituents, so feel free to tell him how you feel about the pressing issues facing our state. The chances are fairly good that you will get a response back!