homesick

We had grand plans,

Chris and I.

A whole week without a kid.

In our own house!

We were going to golf and watch movies.

Go out to breakfast and relax.

Ellie was staying at Linda and Wayne's.

She was so excited!

Like, rambled about it for months, excited.

She was going to go to Bible School and swim and see her cousins and eat ice cream and take scooter rides.

Then we left.

And the proverbial excrement hit the fan.

The first night she started texting me at 10:30.

"I woke up with a bad dream."

"I'm sad."

"I miss my home."

Then she face timed me at 12:15 with crocodile tears.

"I need you, Mommy."

(Knife to chest, twist, repeat.)

(Note to self, no ipod touch allowed in bed.)

We decided that night to see how the next day went and we would re-evaluate.

I didn't sleep well.

 

The day went great!

She loved Bible School and spent time with her cousins.

I got smiley face texts and all was well.

But then it was bedtime again.

Cue the crocodile tears.

 For the first time in her life, I was MAD at her.

Mad that she wasn't willing to stick it out.

Mad, cause I knew she could have SO MUCH fun if she would just let herself.

Mad that Linda had to deal with this irrational kid.

And if I am being perfectly honest, I was mad that I didn't get my week.

Cause I can be a baby about stuff like that.

So I had a choice.

Do I teach the "stick it out, you will be so proud you did" lesson,

or the

"I am your mama and I will always be there when you need me" lesson.

I chose the latter.

 Because she is 7.

And she was sad.

And for whatever reason, founded or not, she wanted to come home.

We left at 9 in the pm to meet Wayne half way, 2.5 hours.

At 2 in the am she was all snuggled in her own bed.

Happy as a lark. 

 

Wayne is our new hero.

Thank you Wayne.  We love you.

I vividly remember being homesick as a kid.

A lot.

I think what made it worse was knowing how utterly sad she felt.

Even though it was nuts.

Knowing she felt all alone in the world.

Even though there were no less than 25 people in a mile radius that love her to pieces.

Homesickness is for the birds.

The ugly, rotten, stinky birds.

She and Chris were talking yesterday and Chris was explaining what homesick meant.

She replied:

"I didn't even know you could get that.  It is awful!"

And when she talks to people about it, I realized she thinks she got sick.

She doesn't say "I was homesick."

She says "I had homesick."

Hee.

There are so few of these little kid mistakes anymore, I hate to correct this one.

 

So now she is home.

And we have hit the summer routine.

And I think she has only occasionally wished she stuck it out.

But overall, I think we made the right decision.

So thank you Indiana family for trying REALLY hard to show her a good time.

We really appreciate it!

She just had a moment.  

A "cry for your parents til you drive me 5 hours in the middle of the night" moment.

Parenting is hard.