Friday, July 20, 2012

The Ties That Bind...

Ok, I sortta lied. I want to keep blogging on an every other day schedule, but due to a family emergency, I must wing my way back to the United States (And should in fact be in flight when this is posted). So while I hope to blog from the States, chances are we'll be taking a short break.

But enough about the blog, one of the problems with running back Stateside for an emergency is that it will be sans kids. Plane tickets overseas, especially ones of a last minute nature, are damned expensive. Given that I'm also heading back home to visit relative who is currently in the hospital as well, this isn't a trip to bring the kids on. Unfortunately, this has had a bad effect on Makoto, but it was one that I was kinda expecting.

Story time, when Makoto was still a baby, I went out on a few trips. Oh, nothing earth shattering, just a few overnighters, once up a mountain with my students, and twice on a trip with the firefighters. During those said times, Makoto didn't seem to really have a problem with Daddy being away. Yes, he apparently went looking for me, and was a bit fussy at night when Daddy wasn't in his futon, but all in all, he didn't really notice the difference between Daddy is away on a trip and Daddy is away to school for the day (Admittedly, we DID have problems with that later on, including one morning with him screaming how he hated school because Daddy goes to it every day without Makoto).

But... Last summer... I decided to improve my education by getting my TESOL Certification. This involved staying in Tokyo for the tail end of July and a good chunk of August (Which, let me tell you, was NOT fun as I was in a capsule hotel the whole time and it was hot as hell). Makoto went with Beloved and Hikaru down to her folks for the time period and, didn't take it too well. Whenever I manged to call down, I would have a complaining boy asking me just when Daddy was going to come home. After I came back, there were a few weeks of him stating how much he missed me and asked if I was going to go somewhere again.

Then my grandfather fell ill last October and I returned home for his last illness. I was gone a bit more than a week, Makoto was devastated as I couldn't call back to Japan. Beloved said he cried and cried while I was gone and when I did get back, he attempted to stay up all night waiting for my train to come in (He didn't quite make it).

February saw a trip once more with the firefighters, this one just over night. I thought Makoto should be over it by now, just to get a panicked phone call with a hysterical 4-year-old who was crying and crying and crying. It took me 5 minutes to get him to finally state that he was just sad and wanted me home.

Of course, everyone on the bus loved it and one firefighter went home to yell at HIS sons about how they don't care about him as much as my sons do about me.

Needless to say, Makoto took the news about my impending trip badly. The day before I left, he had a major melt down in the morning, not understanding that I was just heading to school as usual. It took me a good 10 minutes to get him to calm down and accept that Daddy would be home that night at least.

The ties that bind, sometimes they cut too.

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