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Tried to take a "self-care" weekend and spent the whole time on the phone
Booked a hotel an hour from home. The plan was a real two-day break — read a book, take a long walk, sleep without one ear on the baby monitor (mom's not a baby, but the monitor is the same).
I got two hours in before the calls started. Pharmacy needed me to authorize a refill. Mom's neighbor called because the porch light was out and Mom couldn't reach it. The school nurse called about my son. I spent Saturday afternoon in a hotel chair with a notepad and three open call logs.
I'm not even mad. I'm just — noting it. The "go somewhere alone for two days" model of self-care assumes the calls stop coming. They do not stop coming. I drove home Sunday morning earlier than planned because honestly I was getting more rest at home with my own bed than in a hotel where I was just on call from a different ZIP code.
Whatever the answer is, it's not a hotel.
The "on call from a different ZIP code" part is the whole problem. I tried something similar last fall — drove out to a friend's cabin, two nights, no kids that weekend. I'd built it up as the reset I needed. Spent most of Saturday on the phone with my ex about a school form. Sunday morning I gave up and just drove home.
The thing I've started doing instead is one weeknight evening a month where I leave the house at 6 and don't come back until 9. Phone on, but I don't pick up unless it's the kids. Three hours, dinner alone or with one friend. It's not a weekend but it's the only thing that's actually worked.