My mom friends and I took an afternoon off to spend time together. We spent less than $100 and all the snacks were ours.

• Instead of grabbing dinner, a few of my girlfriends and I took an afternoon off to hang out.
• As a working mom, the novelty of being somewhere different on a weekday afternoon felt special.
• Seeing a Broadway matinee gave us something rare: a few hours when no one needed anything from us.

We need to do this more often

On a scale of one to 10, I know our outing was very tame. Looking back, I think that’s what was so great about it.

The whole afternoon cost less than $100 and a few hours of PTO for each of us. What we gained was so much more valuable, though.

We each got a piece of the week just for ourselves, which is a rare treat for a working mom. No one was keeping an eye on Slack messages, there wasn’t a looming deadline to meet, and the snacks in our purses were for us. I can’t wait to do it again soon.