The Long Goodbye
When you love someone, goodbyes are really hard. When our children were small, the thing they hated most of all, was when their Dada left the house- whether it was to go to work or anywhere it else. It didn’t matter to them where he was going or why. If he was going somewhere without them- to them, that was just terrible. Their sobbing would last for a long time after he left. Similarly, when he got home, they had to be reunited with him at the very instant he entered the house and couldn’t bear to part ways even for him to shower. So we came up with a code word called ‘quick exit.’ He would get ready to leave for work, I would keep the children engaged with something, and signal to him- quick exit- and he would leave the house quietly and as unnoticeably as possible. That way the children wouldn’t be bawling their heads off everyday. As they grew up, they learned that yes, Dada does leave the house and it is painful to say goodbye, but he will come back and it is important to