My husband Rog and his business partner recently returned from a 3-week
business trip overseas. Three
weeks is a long time for a 2 year old and 4 year old to be without their
Dad. I was determined that we
would make the most of it and that it would be an adventure for us all… and it
was! The boys have only been with
us since December so I really did not want them to feel “abandoned” in any way.
That sounds so dramatic but it is something that we are very aware of. We spend a lot of time prepping the
boys for anything new in their lives – we never spring anything on them unless
it is a fun family activity and we never take away anything suddenly. We have seen huge rewards in doing
things slowly. We took time to
explain what it was all about and where Rog was going etc and they were very
interested especially Tom.
I also planned a little holiday for us to shorten the time here
and my Mom and I took the boys up to the Midlands for 6 nights. We stayed in a little cottage on a beautiful
farm and we completely unplugged for a week – it was amazing! No rushing in the mornings, no nagging
to get anything done by a certain time, no being late for anything – it was
like a total detox of "busyness" – I loved it and so did the kids! They boys loved the farm and made good
friends with the dogs, donkeys and horses and even tried their hand at fishing.
They made many pretend phone calls to their Dad, Rog gave them an
old cell that doesn’t work anymore and they love to play with it. Whenever they felt like talking to him
they put through a very cute call on their phone where they would tell on Mummy
or their brother and then fake report back what Dad had said. They also had quite a few real Skype
calls to their Dad and that really helped them to be able to hear his voice
over the time.
I made the boys a cross off calendar and only gave it to them when
there was 10 days left to cross off – Tom loved it more that I thought he ever
would and if he ever left for school before remembering to cross one off he was
close to tears! I had to promise to remind him later in the day. Max still
randomly throws out “One more sleep” even though Dad has been home a while so I
think it may have been lost on him.
They hardly slept the night before Rog came home and it was just
so precious to see how excited they where to see him! Rog missed them terribly and could not believe all the
little changes that had happened in 3 weeks. We had a super fun weekend of
catch up and it is more than lovely to all be under one roof again!
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