The Return Home Stretch
My son's Spring Break visit is nearing the tail end, and this is usually when things start to fall apart.
It doesn't fall apart in a negative way (though I suppose there's no other way to mean it) but more in the sense that everyone knows time is growing short and there's an underlying stress to the final hours because we know they're the final hours before he goes back to his other home and we won't see each other for at least another three months.
Sometimes longer.
My wife and I know when the time's drawing near, my son knows it, and we all sort of ignore the elephant in the room and try to enjoy what we've got while the clock counts down.
It doesn't help that going from double-income, no-kids to having a freewheeling six-year old full-time is hell on the biorhythms and daily routine (for everyone) and it's bitter irony that the end of these visits is when we're trying to hang on the hardest, yet we're all starting to wear down and need a break -- and a more permanent solution.
He may be six and not have a lot of say now, but I think it's pretty clear for anyone to see that he'd be better off with my wife and I... I'm hoping that when he gets a few more years under his belt, he'll agree and we can finally leave all these instantly-changing schedules, flights back and forth, and painfully endless stretches of time between visits behind.
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Hang in there. Enjoy the visits and keep growing that bond. He'll break free from his mom soon enough. You and I both know kids dealing with divorce are a lot more perceptive than adults usually think they are. It's only a matter of time before he truly understands what's up and does something about it.