My wife called just before, she has been gone since Sunday morning, her first night away from our daughter. I put her on speaker phone and my daughters face lit up immediately with her arms flailing about in the air as she squealed. I made a video call and she babbled excitedly at the image of her mother.
It is interesting that all of yesterday, last night and today our daughter has been fine without her mother, no worries at all spending a couple of days with her dad. The first sound of her mother's voice and she lights up like a Christmas tree.
After the call, I think she was expecting to see her mother straight away and was disappointed, no tears, but a little whiny. We read her favourite books, Are you my mother? by P.D Eastman and she went back to playing before her midday nap.
The connections children make with their parents are obviously among the strongest in their lives but, I think we underestimate their ability to be in the moment and enjoy what they have right now too. It is only when the memory of a missing parent comes that the longing starts.
Many parents feel guilty for leaving their children for a little while, but children probably learn a lot from the space of an absent parent too. Perhaps, as long as it is not made to feel as if a missing parent is a negative thing, children won't accept it as fact and make it one.
This is a photo from Saturday on a road trip.
Taraz
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