keeping in contact with the family

My husbands in school right now & will be going OTR for a year or so. I fully support him & I know it will be hard but isn't it a little easier this day in age with cell phones & skype & such? We have 3 kids age 10, 8, & 3. I've prepared my 10 year old for it & she seems okay with it all & we aren't hiding the fact from the other 2 either. Give it to me straight how hard will it be? The kids are at the age now where they aren't going to forget who their daddy is.

 

Easier to stay in touch now than it ever was.
Keep in mind Daddy will be busy and worn out so bugging him with every little thing could lead to some answers you don't want to hear.
Even with all the new technology the best for me anyway, was the call at days end to catch up and say goodnight.
Calls while driving, even on a non hand held device, are a distraction.
Wouldn't want to be talking to Dad when he wrecked.

 

I work 10 hour days myself so I wouldn't be calling for every little thing, I would leave it on him to call us at night when he was able to, I would only plan on calling him in an emergency. As long as we get to talk to him once a day on most days we will be happy.

 

Kids are the hardest thing to deal with being on the road. If he is a really "involved" father it will be hard on him as well as very hard on the kids. I have been dealing with this for a couple of years now and it just gets harder as time passes. Your kids really do not understand being gone for weeks and weeks. Skype and the phone do help though.

 

Im sure none of us will really realize the extent of it until he is OTR, he is involved but I am the one that does everything with the kids for the most part, our 10 year old is used to being away from us for a week or two when she stays with her grandparents. We are hoping he can get on with a company that will have him home every friday then out again on Sunday.

 

When you find that company let me know, I live in FLA too.

 

i think the best for me was when i bought a camrecorder , then what i did then gave to the wife, she then taped the grandkids playing in the yard and in the close of the tape she says her stuff, wasnt the same as being there, but it was alfull darn close, then when i got home and getting ready too leave out she gave me a new tape too look at before i went too bed, sometimes they were funny other times sad but i told her i wanted everything as if i was there with them, i cant belive how fast the day went by thinking about that tape i was gonna wacth that night

 

aw82797 don't be surprised if hubby doesn't call for 2 or 3 days at a time for couple of reasons. First will be he'll be tired at the end of his shift and go asleep as soon as he is parked. The second will be in trucking working weird hours, unless a driver has a regular run. This is rare for a newbie to get. What I mean by weird hours is his day is starting when you and the kids are sleeping and ending when eveyone is in school or working. Here's an idea. Set a day and time for him to call. That way all of you can check on each other. Also he won't alway have access to the internet everytime he stops. If he does it'll probably be too slow for Skype and such.

 

looking at it from the side of the person being the one gone....

Who says it's easy from our perspective?

It sucks all around.

 

I text whenever I can't call.