My wife is German, so she takes the kids overseas for at least three weeks each year to visit her family. I usually get two weeks to myself to go back to bachelor mode and spend time with old friends and getting things done around the house.
Then in the summer if we rent a summer home, they all go away for a month and I join them on the weekends. That\'s four weeks of weekdays by myself.
Of course I miss them all, but we all have things that have fallen by the wayside due to family obligations that we can catch up on during these periods. Reading, bill paying and sorting, long term planning, doing stuff around the house, watching TV, hanging out with friends, exercising (going for hour long runs after getting home from work) and generally just catching up on our own relaxing and personal time.
By the end of it my batteries are so recharged I can make it another year!
