It recently came to my attention that I haven’t taken a week’s vacation in eight years.

Funny, I hadn’t even noticed.

There have been getaways, of course. A long weekend here. A Christmas with loved ones there. But never a full week in one place with the sole purpose of relaxing and (gasp) having fun.

When my mom called a few months ago to say she and my father were thinking of renting a house in Maine this summer and would we like to join them for a week, I balked.

“A week? No. I don’t do that. A long weekend perhaps …”

“Well, we’re not going to rent a house if you’re not coming for at least a week,” she said.

I was outraged.

How dare that crazy woman suggest I take a week off? I mean A WEEK? That’s like, seven days! That’s like a weekend plus FIVE additional days. That’s insane. Who does that?

According to my husband, a lot of people do. And they do it every single year. Sometimes twice a year.

It’s not like I’m some kind of workaholic. Much to my employer’s chagrin, I’ve cultivated a very healthy work-life balance, with the scale tipped heavily in favor of life. It’s just that spending a week’s vacation, all at once, on an actual vacation, well, it seems so … dangerous.

Think of all the things that could ruin a perfectly good week.

It could rain the whole time. The kids could get sick. You could eat a malignant shrimp, or discover that your hotel is in a dry county, surrounded by miles upon miles upon miles of no bars or liquor stores.

And then what?

You’ve used your week. With nary a used cocktail napkin to show for it.

I looked at my husband with my crazy control freak eyes. “I don’t think we can afford to take that kind of risk,” I said.

Very quietly, very carefully, he responded. “I don’t think we can afford not to.”

And so we’re off tomorrow.

To the great state of Maine. Land of the lobster.

It'll be me, my husband, our four-year-old, our two-year-old, my brother, my mother, her mother, my father, his brother and my aunt, their son, their daughter, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I think it’s going to be great. I really do.

But if something does go wrong, surely it won’t be the end of the world.

After all, we’re only going for a week.