I don't think it's healthy to be apart from your immediate family for more than about 10 hours. I've done the long-distance relationship thing, done travel, my husband's traveled, we've both been 12-hour shift-workers. I've been the child of a parent who travels for work. It all sucks. There's a good reason you are paid more for that type of work. It significantly reduces your quality of life. And it is 100x worse when there are children in the picture.
Anyway, this only comes to mind because for the first time in years my husband is a shift-worker. He's actually salaried for 40 hours a week, but because of a crisis at work he is stuck working 16 hour days, even on the weekend. So, it's like he's gone. We talk on the phone. They've been buying him food (whoopee). I can't help but wonder if he'll get a bonus for this stint.
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