Hi everyone, my husband has only been in orientation for 2 days and my little girl is heartbroken. I have 3 children. a son 13. twin girls 7. but one of them is the biggest daddy's girl i have ever known. she crys alot and last night she cried herself to sleep. she is a child with special needs and has been through alot, so naturally i do not like to see her hurt for any reason. i hope with time she will adjust. but she is looking for him to come home tomorrow and he called last night and said that there is a possibility that he may not be coming back before he finishes training. I thought that they gave them a chance to come home and get ready. if this does happen, she is going to be devistated. if he does come home she is going to have a tough time when he leaves again regardless. i try to comfort her, but her little heart is just broken and she is so pitiful. any advice?thanks for listening.

The younger the child the more they don't understand that DADDY has to leave home to make money for the family, which is tough.

Some of the drivers that I work with take pictures for their family of places that they have been or interesting things they see out there on the road, or have another driver take a pic of them standing by their truck and give these photos to their family for a diary or keepsake. Of course they have DIGITAL cameras and run them off on their computers when they get home and print them out.

It's possible that she could relate the fact that when he does return home, he would have a couple of photos for her, which might make the coming and going a little easier.

Or he could pick up postcards from truckstops that he visits or other little things that she might relate too.

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I am in the same boat as you! I have an 8 year old daughter with special needs, Down syndrome to be exact (along with 3 older sibs)....and she just doesn't understand the concept of time. Her resource teacher and I were trying to come up with ideas to help her anticipate when Daddy was coming home, but the problem is he will be gone for 14/16 days at a time so his days home are not exact. He just got out of training and home on Sunday, delivered his cars locally on Monday, took his 2 days and left early this morning. So this time it was nice that we got to see him an extra day and a half.

My dh takes his laptop, and we just bought a wireless card so that we'll be able to video call (thru Yahoo IM) as much as possible. And he calls EVERY night right before bedtime no matter where he's at. We tell Kel he's out working 'making pizza money' .

None of the major cell companies will let you stream video over the air card. Once they figure out your usage high, they will look into it. Once they know you are streaming video or voice they will either send a letter telling you to stop or just out right cancel your air card account. Please read your terms of service very carefully, it will state no streaming.

Mark

EEK!!!!! I've never heard of that! Even with 'unlimited' use? That would totally suck...especially since we're paying about $90/MONTH for service. Guess I'd better check that out...thanks for the heads up!

I wonder though if 'air card' is the correct term for what we have?

If you have the wireless internet service through your cell phone company then it is an "air card". In reality all it is, is a cell phone, on your bill it will have a separate number listed. If your spending $90 a month, its a good bet its an "air card".

The other option you have is to use wi-fi. If your dh has a current (1.5 yrs or newer) laptop, wi-fi is built into the computer. If it's not then he needs to get a wi-fi card, $25 at most places. All of the major truck stop chains have a wi-fi service, it runs about $20 a month. The down side is that he needs to be at the truck stop to use it.

There is no true unlimited service, they all have a limit. I use At&T, it has a limit of 5Gb of data per month. For checking email and surfing the web that is a lot of data. They do not want you use the "air card" for playing games, streaming video or sound. Games, video, and voice use a lot of band width.

Mark

Thanks, Mark, I really appreciate your information...I am going to inform my dh about this.

And I will stop now with the thread hijack.

I wouldn't bother informing him, as Sprint and Alltel both don't have this bandwidth cap, and I know for a fact that Sprint doesn't prohibit streaming video. However, if you did go with AT&T or Verizon, then it's likely against their terms. The thing is, a few minutes per night won't put you over the 5GB limit.

Edit: Also worth mentioning that they're commonly called aircards, but AirCard is actually a property of Sierra Wireless specifically used for THEIR line of wireless PC cards and such.

Cat 500 - My Husband is on week 4 or 5 of Training (have to look on the Calender !). My 3 Year Old Daughter asks me every day, Where's Daddy ? And I want Daddy Home. I know that she doesn't understand but I tell her Daddy is driving.
I have a 7 year old Son with major Medical Problems, and Dad was always his rock. And since his Dad's been gone, I have had to come up with things to keep his mind positive. He was and still is having a very hard time. Crys alot and especially at night. Talking to his Dad on the phone just isn't enough.

* We were planning on getting a lap top for my Husband to take with him (wireless internet) so we could use the Web Cam for the kids.*

* And we are purchasing another Digi Cam so he can email pics to us for the kids to see *

But in the meantime this is what I did. I took all of the pictures I could find of my husband with all of us, or just with him and the kids and made a picture collage on back of his bedroom door. So he wakes up seeing his Dad and we have this game where he picks out a "picture" for the day and we talk about when and where that picture was taken. It's helps him remember the positive and what fun we had when that picture was made.

There is also a web site that another member gave me awhile back where you can go online and see where the truck is at - it's a map with a pin point tracking the truck. Some companies don't have this option though.

I also bought a US lamanated Map (it's a decent size) and when he talks to his Dad, he always asks where he is. Then we take a thumbtack that we glued his truck model too, and find which state he is currently in. It really helps to keep my Son involved.

This past week we have been working on letters. I help him write them sometimes and sometimes he does it by himself. When finished we put them in "Daddy's Mailbox" for when he gets home. We made a mailbox out of cardboard and felt and placed in on the window sill. That thing must have 15 letter so far ! All in envelopes addressed to Dad. My daughter puts her drawings in there too. We may need to make a bigger one.

I am sorry that your Daughter is going through such a rough time. Sometimes I get so caught up in my own emotions that I truely forget that the kids feel sad & worse then I do.

My Son is doing better. His cry days are slowly disappering.

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Mrs_Nash


30 years Young.
Mommy to D.J and Sheridan. Baby # 3 on the way ~ Summer 2009 !!

Wife to Daniel.

I LOVE MY TRUCKER.