Why I'm not taking Erika to meet my family
Erika has been saying she will miss me when I'm gone for 3 weeks. She's been asking me not to go, or to bring her along. But she alternates between this and excitement of being with daddy for 3 weeks, so it's not all bad.
I wish I could have taken Erika with me. She has only met her extended family when she was 4 months old, not exactly at an age when memories are made. But now she's old enough to form conscious memories of a visit. Yet Steve did not let me take her to Lithuania. He thinks she's too young for such a long trip; I disagree, because I know of parents travelling much longer distances with even younger children. He also claims I won't be able to take care of her on the trip properly. While I don't need his permission to take her out of the country, the limiting factor is time. According to our custody agreement, each of us gets only 2 weeks of vacation with Erika. 2 weeks is not long enough for a transatlantic trip with a young child. As soon as she adjusts to jet lag and to the sounds of a foreign language around her (yes, sadly it's foreign to her, though native to me), it will be time to go home. I would prefer to go for a month. But Steve did not agree to let me take a month-long vacation with Erika, even though I offered to let him do the same, and our custody settlement does not prevent us from modifying our schedule by mutual agreement. In fact, it encourages us to be flexible around each other's needs.
I didn't want to antagonize Steve, so I decided not to travel with Erika against his wish. The final straw was the possibility of Icelandic volcanoes continuing to erupt. If another eruption started, and we were trapped somewhere in Europe for 2 weeks or more, unable to fly neither forth nor back, that would be a complete fiasco. So I decided not to take risks.
I wish I could have taken Erika with me. She has only met her extended family when she was 4 months old, not exactly at an age when memories are made. But now she's old enough to form conscious memories of a visit. Yet Steve did not let me take her to Lithuania. He thinks she's too young for such a long trip; I disagree, because I know of parents travelling much longer distances with even younger children. He also claims I won't be able to take care of her on the trip properly. While I don't need his permission to take her out of the country, the limiting factor is time. According to our custody agreement, each of us gets only 2 weeks of vacation with Erika. 2 weeks is not long enough for a transatlantic trip with a young child. As soon as she adjusts to jet lag and to the sounds of a foreign language around her (yes, sadly it's foreign to her, though native to me), it will be time to go home. I would prefer to go for a month. But Steve did not agree to let me take a month-long vacation with Erika, even though I offered to let him do the same, and our custody settlement does not prevent us from modifying our schedule by mutual agreement. In fact, it encourages us to be flexible around each other's needs.
I didn't want to antagonize Steve, so I decided not to travel with Erika against his wish. The final straw was the possibility of Icelandic volcanoes continuing to erupt. If another eruption started, and we were trapped somewhere in Europe for 2 weeks or more, unable to fly neither forth nor back, that would be a complete fiasco. So I decided not to take risks.