I'm not saying I want to join a commune, just that it's nice to get out once in a while

My mother - in - law has been staying with us for about a week and it has been really, really nice.

No.  I'm not being sarcastic here.  Really.  It's been fabulous.  She looks after the kids and likes to watch Downton Abbey and pays attention to the cats who have been luxuriating in all the extra petting.  She's fun to talk with and likes to tell me stories about J when he was a kid.*  J and I both got to go play games at CABS on Friday and tonight we got a bonus date night.  Dinner and a movie!

It leads me to believe that, quite possibly, the optimal number of adults in a household is not two.  We all know that one adult with children is really less than optimal, because, let's face it, children are exhausting.  It's good to have another adult around to help take up some of the slack when you're dead on your feet and you cannot, cannot face reading the Berenstain Bears just one more time.  Or someone else to step in and be the voice of reason and support when the whining just hits that pitch that makes you want to rip your eardrums out with a fork.  Two adults is good.

But three is better, when all of them are caring and responsible individuals who are good at getting along.  And while I don't think I'd be up to the level of closeness needed to live like our neighbors who have four different couples, with varying ages of children living in a house not much larger than ours**, I can't help but think that they might be on to something.  If nothing else, I'm going to bet that they get out to the movies more often than we do, and don't worry so much about how much they spend of babysitters.

So that's it.  Nothing snarky tonight.  Just a little gratitude for having married into a good family of people I like.

And a recommendation to go see Wreck-It Ralph.  It's cute.  If you'd have to pay a sitter to go see it, though, then maybe just wait till it's out on DVD.  Sitters are expensive.  I know.

*this probably endears her more to me than to J

**I'm thinking that have at least one more bathroom, though.  I hope so. I realize it's a thoroughly late 20th-century American trait but I love having my own bathroom with it's gorgeous tub and walk-in closet.  If moving to a commune requires giving up my own bathroom then I'm not going, I don't care how nice the childcare arrangements are.