Modern mothers are getting some precious time to themselves. The kids? TheyâreÂ Daddyâs problem this week.  On a rainy August night when it seemed that most people in Manhattan had fled town, Jes Wade, a fashion designer and married mother of two, was lying in a 97-degree salted bath called a Flotarium, at Aire Ancient Baths in TriBeCa. Eyes closed, hands splayed by her side, in a crocheted black bikini, she seemed impermeable to stress. âThis must be what it feels like to be in the womb,â she said.  Shortly thereafter, Ms. Wade changed into a metallic lace and satin mini and a bias-cut gold sequin racer tank of her own design, applied a few dabs of makeup and headed to dinner with a girlfriend. On the street, she checked her phone and displayed a photo her husband, Andrew Clark, had e-mailed showing their daughters, 4 and 7, frolicking on a lawn. âTheyâre chasing dragonflies,â she said dreamily before darting across the street to hail a cab.  Ms. Wade, 39, has been living like a bachelorette for July and early August while Mr. Clark cares for their girls at their country house in the Hudson Valley. On weekends she commuted on Amtrak to see them: the modern incarnation, perhaps, of Tom Ewell in the classic 1955 New York City summer movie âThe Seven-Year Itch,â by Billy Wilder.  Ewell played a married publishing executive whose wife and son are in Maine for the summer and who strikes up a flirtation with a friendly neighbor played by Marilyn Monroe. And though Ms. Wade laughingly denied any smooches with handsome building-mates who, perhaps, keep boxer-briefs in the refrigerator, she admitted that with the family away, even a full-time workweek can feel like a vacation.  âSummer is a recharge time because you donât have all the after-hours responsibilities of spending time with your family,â she said. âWhen youâre a mom and you work, itâs hard to take time for yourself.â  Spottings of âMom Ewellsâ are not exclusive to New York. The Los Angeles-based screenwriter Susan Hoffman Hyman, who is in her 40s, is also alone on and off this summer, preparing for network-TV pitch season while her husband, a schoolteacher, has their children, 8 and 9, on the East Coast with extended family. âI made plans with all these friends who are either single or married with no kids,â she said. âFriends I never have the time to make plans with. And I definitely drank more than usual because I would end up going out. To have my house to myself without my husband telling me to put the iPhone down and stop playing Words with Friends: that was heaven.â  Along with alcohol and apps, many of these moms are finding their bliss in actual work, which they can do for once without the anxiety of rushing home to begin the âsecond shift.â Ms. Wade was awake until 4 a.m. one morning, helping a friend make costumes for a play; Ms. Hoffman Hyman has done late-night Skype sessions; and Karla Chrzanowski, 48, the brand development director for a lifestyle magazine, has arrived early and stayed late at the office.  âI love my career, and I love my colleagues,â Ms. Chrzanowski said, âbut my family is my priority, and normally when I have to work late, I feel guilty.â In July, she lived for two workweeks in her Upper West Side apartment with her younger son, who is 8 months old, aided by a sitter, while her husband, a photographer and marketing consultant, took their older son, 6, to their house in Columbia County, N.Y, an arrangement theyâre now repeating.  Though some might not consider time with an infant any sort of vacation, Ms. Chrzanowski, perhaps a soul sister of Yahooâs Marissa Mayer, said she found it peaceful compared to full-on family life. âIt felt like a deep breath,â she said. âYouâre running so fast when all the players are around you, and when theyâre not you focus on whatâs good for yourself.â  Unlike some of their male counterparts, the women are hardly indulging in strip clubs â or strip steaks. One day for lunch, Ms. Hoffman Hyman went to a sushi restaurant near her Westwood home, sat at the bar and told the chef to give her whatever he wanted. âI racked up a bill as big as it would have been for a family of four,â she said. âWith a little sake to boot. And then I went home and back to work.â  As for Ms. Chrzanowski? âI definitely grabbed a few meals standing up in the kitchen,â she said. âPerhaps a Trader Joeâs dumpling or two. Lemon grass chicken sticks? Maybe.â  She also drank more white wine than usual. âNot because I was trying to,â she said, âbut because I had the time to sit down and finish a glass.â
In a culture that expects parents to be beholden to the needs of their children, some mothers are getting time away.