Separation Anxiety

So, my daughters will be leaving today at approximately 9am to spend the next month with their mother. That’s 30 days. 720 hours. 7,200 minutes. I’ve been decidedly nervous about this for the past couple of days for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I’m wary of how prolonged exposure to their mother affects their overall behavior when they return. Early on when they first moved in with us, they would return from their visits sullen and disobedient. Of course this has gotten much better over they years, but this is a whole freakin’ month we’re talking about here.

To be quite honest, I don’t think she (their mother) even knows how to deal with a child over the age of 9. She has a tendency to “baby” them and not communicate with them like the mature young women that they are. I remember getting calls from their mother at night when they were half the age they are now, with her asking me to talk to them because they weren’t listening to her and she didn’t know what to do. Not exactly a confidence booster there.

I understand that this is of course their mother and they need to spend time with her, but hey, this is just how I feel. Of course there are mothers out there that are fantastic *cough* Kristine *cough*, and are mature enough to handle pre teens. I just don’t think that bio-mom is one of those.

Can you hear me practicing my breathing? Yeah. Hee-Hee-hoooooo.

Anyway, last night we (Mrs. Disco and I) went for a late night swim with the girls, brought some snacks and Thor, and had a good time. Of course, Danielle was being her pre-teen self and was “bored” after 20 minutes. We hung out for a while longer, or at least until the warmth from the earlier part of the day wore off and we began to feel the chill of the night air. We then retired to the reading room (read: living room slash dining room slash TV room slash Rock Band stage) to watch some family television: A&E's "Intervention". Weeeeee!


(Update: 08:47 a.m.They just called to say that their mom just showed up to get them. Is it wrong that I was prepared to talk to them for the next 9 hours so I could keep them from leaving until I got home? I’m gonna go barf now.)