For nearly four complete days, I became something hadn't been in nearly 10 years -- childless.

Those with grown children, you have probably blocked out all memories of waking up with small bodies in your bed, loading and unloading into car seats or buying extra items at the store because either something got broken or you didn't notice the item in the grocery cart until after everything was rung up.

Of course, those memories are replaced by thoughts of children out past curfew, out driving by themselves, out with friends you don't know.

Suddenly, those days of just trying to keep track of your child among all the clothing racks in the department store don't seem so bad.

But at the time, small children can be daunting. At the time, you don't realize how much your life has changed, your daily business has evolved -- until those same small children aren't around for a few days.

With my children staying with their grandmother for a few days, I didn't notice the difference of being childless until I woke up that first morning.

Sleeping takes on a whole new meaning when children are not in the vicinity.

During the day, my children could out-yell, out-stomp, out-slam any army.

But somehow, they are able to slip into my bed at night without me noticing.

That is until at some point in the early hours of the morning, I find my self suddenly suffering from claustrophobia because I'm sandwiched in between two small children with another draped across my feet.

I sometimes do hear the patter of small feet in the middle of the night, but am usually too tired to do anything meaningful about it such as that daunting task of saying, "Go back to your bed." And I pay for it in the morning when they rise first and expect me to do the same.

If your children are past that stage of wandering in your bedroom, then perhaps you remember the first morning they "let" you sleep in, not waking you up the instant their eyes flung open. At the time, you hoped they were just maturing, but soon realized this happened because they had learned how to use the remote control to find cartoons and could negotiate a full gallon of milk and a full box of coco-sugar flakes.

Without small children to use as an alarm clock or to push off for breathing room, I rose several hours past my normal rising time and ventured to the store. This presented additional new experiences.

Traditional thinking is that parents spend more money at the grocery store when they have children along because the kids are always asking for this box of cereal or that bag of chips. In my case, my grocery bill is higher because a small child has opened this box of cereal or broke that bag of chips, but that's a different story.

In reality, a person can spend much more money when they are sans children.

Why? Because they have more time to wander down aisles normally off limits because of little grabbing hands such as anything glass related. Because they have more time to browse racks of items which usually create torrents of "I'm bored" from the waiting children. Because they figure they can just throw something in their cart and think about it at the cash register, where things won't be as frantic as usual.

Next thing they know, they are loading six shopping bags of stuff in their trunk when all they came to the store was for toothpaste.

During those few days without children, I ventured into the grocery story once and only once. I had forgotten how to shop for one person and an adult to make it even more complicated.

I was particularly overwhelmed in the cereal aisle. My choice of cereals wasn't limited to the highest marshmallow count or the best toy promotion.

In fact, I could pick any cereal I wanted. It could be the blandest, dullest cereal on the market or sugar cubes coated in rice flakes trying to pass itself off as cereal. And best of all, I didn't have to worry about sharing it with anyone.

Ultimately, I became overwhelmed. It had been so long since choosing food just for myself that I had to remind myself of what I liked. I settled on Raisin Bran, something even my kids like -- with a little bit of sugar.

-- Ronda Graff is glad to be back home in her own bed, even if it does mean sharing it with six other people.