I dared to leave my three young children and spend a month with strangers – and it was blissful | Saima Mir

Motherhood had stripped me of everything that came before. In a small Italian villa, I was reunited with my old self

In May this year, I left my husband and three children to spend a month in Italy with a group of people I'd never met before. It was the first time in my life I had ever done anything so self-centred.

It all began just before Christmas, when I was invited to apply for a place at a writers' retreat. As the default parent to three boys aged 10, seven, and five, I was reluctant. I usually navigate mealtimes, school drop-off and pickup, swimming, martial arts and various musical instrument lessons. I was not sure how my husband would manage on his own.

Saima Mir is a freelance journalist and author of the 2021 novel The Khan

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