So our Easter curse is upon us and my husband leaves on Sunday to report for a three-month-long school. On the plus side, it's not a deployment. Also it's in a neighboring state, so he will only be three and a half hours away. We are hopeful that he will be able to come home most weekends. However, this training is academic in nature, and until he gets there and gets a feel for it, we are unsure if there will be homework or group projects or things that will keep him busy on the weekends as well.
Another friend's husband left a while ago -- on Valentine's Day, no less -- for several months of training, but he would be gone-gone for the whole time. We both are stay-at-home moms with children around one year old. We were trying to decide which would be harder: knowing for a fact your husband will be gone for three months and just slogging through, or knowing you will get to see your husband on occasion and then getting your hopes up that your husband will be able to come home on weekends and having those hopes crushed on Friday night.
That's my big "fear" with this separation: I will slog it out all week, telling myself that I just have to make it to Friday night and Daddy will be home to help on the weekend...and then having him call Friday evening to say that he has a project due or a group meeting and can't come home this weekend.
One "nice" part about deployment is that you know they're gone. Sometimes I think that's even easier than the day-to-day annoyance of expecting them home at 5 o'clock and then they don't roll in until 6:45. If you're not expecting them at all, it's in some ways easier than when there's the anticipation that they should be here any.minute.now...and then they're not.
Don't get me wrong, I certainly wouldn't prefer to say goodbye and not see him for three months! But there's something different about knowing they're gone-gone and that it's all up to you, as opposed to wondering if and when you'll see them again...and getting your hopes up. When they're gone-gone, you move on and get your own system and own schedule going; when there's the possibility if seeing them, you keep one foot in their life schedule and pencil everything in just in case.
But again, I'd still rather see him than not! So here's hoping that my future Fridays bring weekend help from Daddy!
