The kids have gone back home to their mother again now. I already miss having them here so much. We all had so much fun while they were down. I don’t think I will ever get used to being apart from them.

Have you noticed what the modern family is turning into these days? It seems most children are growing up in a broken home with either their mother or father living out of the family home and away from the children (I have no figures to prove this, but that’s what it seems like).

Obviously there are some situations when the parents can’t be together, but this shouldn’t affect the children in the family. Speaking from my personal experience I was almost forced out of the family home with nowhere to go except my parents. Unfortunately for my children that meant me moving over 100 miles away from them, and as I don’t have a regular income it means I am not able to constantly travel back and forth to see them. It’s heart breaking for me not being able to see them for such long periods of time, which means missing out on a lot of events and parts of their lives.

When I finally find a financially stable job I want to be able to get my own place much closer to the children. I want to be in a position where I can see them every day. I don’t want to miss anything. I want to be able to pick them up from school. I want to be able to take the afternoon off of work and go see their school play. I want to feed them their dinner. I want to be able to take them to the local park after school. I just want to be with them.

Despite seeming happy all the time I do put on a brave face around other people when the conversations steers towards their children or even my own children simply because I can’t do what they do. I can’t cook them dinner every day. I can’t tuck them up in bed. It makes me sad, so my way of coping with it is when I am with my children I try to make their time with me as enjoyable as possible. I neglect all other things and concentrate almost 100% on them.

It makes me sad when I’m talking to friends when they start moaning about doing stuff for their children. I would give up a hell of a lot just to have what they have.

If you’re in a similar situation with your children or know someone who is how do you / they deal with not being able to do a lot with their children? What are your / their coping mechanisms? What advice can you give others?