I was away at yet another blogging conference this week, celebrating being the world’s biggest social media conference whore (uh, by attending conferences, not my behavior AT the conferences) by having a good time, learning, and networking my ass off with other bloggers.
As I usually do while I’m away, I called home several times a day and talked to my family, and each night we’d do a quick
video chat. I noticed a day or two into the trip that my daughter’s voice sounded hoarse and asked my husband about it and he said it was no big deal, nothing going on, she wasn’t sick or anything.
But I came home and found out that while I was away, my daughter cried hard at school to the point of choking every. single. day. I was away.
Yeah.
Normally she LOVES school and dashes into the classroom with nary a goodbye shot over her shoulder to me. But today – my first day home from the conference – she clung to me hard, and it took me forty five minutes to reassure her enough to be able to leave to go to work.
*oof*
It’s likely that she’s just going through a phase; God knows in the last three years I’ve traveled to about eight conferences a year (I TOLD you I was a conference whore) and normally she’s totally fine and just wants to know how many toys I’m bringing home. So, hopefully, when I go away again in a week or so she’ll be fine (please, please, please let her be fine!).
But dudes, this SUCKS. I hate hurting her, I hate her being upset, but the work I do now means I have to travel. So I’ll have to just hope that in the overall scheme of her life, this is really a minor blip of sadness.
But it really, really SUCKS, yo.
About Cecily Kellogg
Poor thing. They do go through these phases where they hate to be separated but try not to feel too guilty. You do have a right to work and your daughter knows she is loved. It took me a long time to realise I was entitled to do things for me or that I had to do and that it would not lead to permanent damage to my children. Being a Mum is riddled with these compromises and hard decisions, the best we can do is try to create a balance and hope that it all works out the best for our families in the end.
Twitter Name: penbleth
My daughter’s birthday was last Wednesday. I was five states away at training. I came home to three sick kids, who I should have been home to take care of. So, I hear ya.
Twitter Name: MamaKaren
If there’s one thing I understand, it’s Mommy Guilt. I teach for 3.5 weeks twice a summer in Singapore. I’ve done it for eight years. My oldest child is 10. My youngest is 8. It is so difficult for me to be away from them – for me and for them. However, my husband swears it’s more difficult for me. I just try to remember all of the things we wouldn’t be able to do or have as a family if it weren’t for the additional teaching assignment. I also think it’s good for my husband to realize just how much I do when I’m home.
Twitter Name: profkrg