Recently my husband has been toying around with the idea of taking up a job offer in Dong Guan. I've never been to Dong Guan, but have been to Shenzhen and while it's nice because it's close to the coast, I'm still a Shanghai fan. While we were discussing this potential move for our household what came up was the idea that he would go first to Dong Guan leaving Tanner and I here for 6 months and just travelling back on the weekends. When we talked to his father about this idea, he seemed shocked by the idea of this and didn't think it was a good idea. But the more and more I talk to my friends here I see that it's not such a strange idea. Many dads in Shanghai have to travel a lot for work, or their work hours are so long or strange that they really aren't home during the week while their kids are awake. But some way some how, they all seem to make it work. One of my friends told me that in some ways having Dad away at work all week actually gives Dad's more time to be with their kids. This way when they are home, they are doing nothing but having quality family time. The more and more I surveyed my dad friends they said that it seems to work well too. By leaving certain tasks as Daddy tasks, it gives Dad's the opportunity to have some time with the kids. For example, one of my friends who has 3 kids, whenever he's home, he's got kids all crawling over him or just hanging out. He's like their favorite toy. Another dad of a baby is in charge of all the baths and nightime chores. This gives him some alone time with baby after work hours. In the end it seems like everything always just works itself out. I used to tell my husband that he would do all the work outside the home and I'd do all the work inside my home. But I realized it didn't give him much time to do anything with Tanner. Now he's got his own Tanner tasks and it gives him some great opportunities to spend with him.