Planning Ahead For Time Apart In Long Distance Relationships

Guest General advice about LDRs

1. Limit time apart and, whenever possible don’t exceed your “reasonable maximum”.

Limiting time apart is a total no-brainer, but what counts as your “reasonable maximum” will vary from couple to couple. For us, three weeks is our acceptable limit, and a lot of couples I know work by the three-week rule as well. It tends to strike a balance between what families can handle and what people actually need to do their work overseas.

Circumstances beyond our control have meant that Madame InsideOut. and I are apart for longer this time, but we’ve generally been pretty good at sticking to the three-week thing. This is for both our sakes, as we generally find our coping ability matches pretty well. Ten days we can take in our stride. Things get painful around the 2 week mark, and by 2 ½ weeks we’re both pretty much done. We’ll push 3 if we have to, but we don’t like it.