Tuesday 14 April 2009

When reunions go bad…

My father was in the army and often away. I would miss him terribly and the anticipation of seeing him again would be indescribable, but when he came home and not long after the hugs and kisses, the walking on eggshells would begin. The pent up emotion made everyone on edge and then it was so easy for him or us to do something silly that would result in a falling out.

You would think that once I learnt this I would be able to avoid it, but no, every time. It is a well known phenomena and the army do talk about it to the troops especially after being away for active service.

My daughter on the other hand has a problem with saying goodbye. My best friend has a daughter the same age and the girls are also have a great bond, but every time the spend time together they fall out juts before it is time to say goodbye, regardless of how long they have spent together. My daughter hates to say goodbye and would rather manufacture a fight.


So what do these two sides of our characteristics have to do with me today? Next weekend I see my daughter for the first time since the New Year and we will only have 4/5 days together. The first few days I will try not to upset her or get upset and then we will try not to fall out.

The problem is if we are both trying too hard to avoid this will we actually relax enough to enjoy ourselves and have fun?

I hope so, I love her