Ok, I had to revive this thread...
On second thought, I think there is something 'missing' in me when it comes to parenting?
My child has been gone for nearly a MONTH to another state visiting with the relatives. Everyone keeps saying 'You must miss her so much!' and 'How many times have you had to fight the urge to just jump in the car and go get her!?'
The answers? (The REAL answers?) Not so much and uh... none.
Granted, I've been a single parent for 9 years and I've lived in another state, on my own with no family to help for 5 of those years. Her and I are forced to spend a LOT of time together, whether we like it or not. Is it just that its a long-overdue vacation that I desperately needed or is it that I'm lacking whatever impulse it is that makes mothers long to have their children with them?
I do think about her every day, and wonder what she's doing and we talk on the phone a lot in the evenings (a lot in my mind is every few days for about 30 - 60 minutes...) but other than that I've been completely content with my own company. I've had no lack of things to do and have really enjoyed myself truth be told. I'll be happy when she comes home so I can settle back into my normal routine, but I don't think that's the same feeling that others are imagining when they say "OH MY GOD SHE'S BEEN GONE THAT LONG!?"
There's this nagging feeling in my mind though that maybe that's a bad thing... lol