Quality Time?

The oldest called and wants to come home for the weekend. Actually, she wanted to come home last weekend, but we were so overbooked there was just no way to pull it off. So on Thursday I'll be driving over to Norfolk, 3.5 hours away, and picking her up so we can get back home again in time for little brother's football game and little sister's volleyball game.

So that brings me to Quality Time... yes, she's homesick, but I wonder if it's homesick for us or for her friends and her car? She's an introvert and usually when she's home, hides in her bedroom with her laptop in her pajamas. I know we'll be in the car together on the way back, but beyond that, how much of the three days she's with me will I get to see her?

I wonder how divorced parents do this. Seeing their children on specified weekends. I've watched some of the kids' friends who couldn't do a sleepover because it was a certain parent's weekend, and I don't want to be that mom. But if I'm the one going to get her because she's homesick, I feel I should get priority "visitation" over her friends.

We'll see how this all works out this weekend. Due to the distance, I won't be going back to get her until Thanksgiving. I'd hoped she would hang in there longer before coming home, it's been just shy of a month since we took her to school, but I don't want her throwing in the towel, either. Something tells me she might just transfer to a school a little closer to home next year, but time will tell.

~C