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I never spent much time away from my children until recently. It always seemed if you wanted to do something with me you had to do it with one of my children as well. My best friend is actually really good at this considering she still doesn’t have any children of her own.
Then a year and a half ago hubby and I were invited to a destination wedding and was part of the wedding party. It was a no kids wedding and required us to go away for five days.
The moments leading up to our departure were really hard for me and I even found myself getting a script for anxiety as I was having anxiety attacks the week before hand. Johnny was 8 at the time and I had never been away from him longer then an overnight at Grandma’s house. I was so overwhelmed and pretty sure that the plane was going to crash and burn leaving our children orphans that I even made sure to write a note to both boys before I left and gave out all their important paperwork before I left.
I now look back and can see how absolutely silly that was of me but at the time leaving my children was like losing a limb. As most of you know Hubby and I left to drive down to Fl in the fall and that required us to leave for another five days. While it still completely overwhelmed me I didn’t feel the need to call my doctor or write notes before I left. I called multiple times during the day to check in and give kisses over the phone.
Crazy enough when hubby and I just took a vacation last week just the two of us for six days I was so excited. Sure I balled my eyes out dropping the boys off at school in front of all the Mom’s but that I’ll always do. Once I jumped back into my Jeep I was fine. I was more then fine. I was excited. Just me and Hubby for six days.
We called only once a day to check in on them and one day we didn’t even get to talk to them because Gavin was napping and Johnny was “too busy”. I was okay with that though.
Maybe it’s because my kids are older or because over the past year and half leaving them more often has made it easier but its funny how leaving my kids is no longer a complete meltdown to me. Instead I cherished coming home to find my kids running out the front door to give us hugs and kisses and tell us how much they missed us. In fact I loved that Gavin wouldn’t let me put him down and although my burn made it impossible to hold him without pain I just carried him anyways.

What’s the longest you’ve been away from your children?
Did you do it for personal reasons?