Sorry, don't know how to get the click-through link.
The below is the last post on the old thread.
Thanks guys for the good advice.
My kids try to be stoic when they say anything to me about H's behaviour.
Basically, they say they don't really miss him and that everything is OK.
They may well say the same thing to him. I think they're afraid of hurting his feelings... and they haven't really accepted what is happening - i.e. that he is really 'gone'.
I'm doing stuff with them to try to make them feel happy - playing board games, going to the beach, seeing some movies, shopping for D16's prom dress, preparing for the new school year. And the new puppy is taking up most of our time and bringing so much joy.
Don't want to moan, but with the kids, and the puppy, and a household to run - and elderly parents to see to (I'm an only child), plus a full-time job to keep an eye on even when I'm on vacation, I don't have much time to do anything other than the above.
I start back at work next week when my kids go back to school, and I'm a little bit worried about how I'm going to cope, but OTOH, I count my blessings that I've got a good job and an income, and that my time is going to be taken up with so much to do.
Probably shouldn't have added the dog into the mix, but it seemed like a way to protect the kids from total heartbreak, and S13 had been given a promise before all this started. My immediate problem now is to work out what to do with puppy when I have to leave the house to be at work. He is only 12 weeks old and has not yet been left alone. He gets very agitated and whines/barks when we leave him outside.
H says just leave him in the back yard when I go to work - but I think puppy is too young to chance this - for his own wellbeing and that of the neighbours - not to mention what would happen to the garden!
I am leaning towards leaving him in his dog crate inside the house for 3 hours or so and coming back home to work from here each day until he is older. Again, not much chance for me to GAL and meet other adults!
When we originally told S13 he was getting a dog, H was still living here and working from home each day, so things would have been peachy. Now, everything's more complicated....
But really, everyone with a dog has to face this kind of issue, so I do need to suck it up!
