How to explain to toddler that daddy is working away?

[Pancakewaffle]

DS is 22 months, and DH has been working away every few weeks for 3-5 days at a time since DS was 1.

DH is currently away all this week and for the first time DS has been asking for him and seems to be looking for him sometimes.

I'm not really sure what to say. He understands more than he can say, but his understanding is obviously fairly limited.

Any advice? Should I just explain each day that daddy isn't here today??

Daddy is working a long way away, so has to sleep at work until Friday. We will do ABC when he isn't here, and then X when he gets home.

Can dad facetime at bedtime?

"Daddy sleeps at his work some days"

Daddy is at work.
You'll see him soon.

If pressed: sometimes people have jobs that mean they don't come home every night.

I've travelled all my Ds's life. At that age, 'mummy is at work and daddy and ds are having fun together' was enough. The concept of days and time isn't enough then. Later 'mummy will be back from work in 3 sleeps' worked. It wasn't till he was 7 or so that talking on the phone was a positive thing and mostly DH would just write/ help him write a text for him to tell him about his day.
The less fuss the better imo

Even if he can't video call, get him to send selfies when he can, especially with work clothes on (hard hat etc if applicable) and work stuff in the background, even if it's just a computer.

22m is definitely old enough to have lots more understanding than you can imagine!

Ps and voice notes from Daddy "I miss you son" - no matter how busy he is he can just do this on the loo etc

Both me and DH have to travel for work sometimes. When this happens, we write little notes to our son and he gets to open them at a certain time of day and read them with the other parent or his granny. He loves it and always asks 'is it time for Mummy/Daddy's notes yet?' We sometimes write some 'news' (made up obviously as it's written in advance) or a little story or quote. He loves it. Can't imagine we will be doing this when he is a teenager haha but as he is young still this is nice. At 2 your kid is still quite young for this, but perhaps you could do a little drawing and a 'hello DS' smily face.

Mine is just a couple of months older. Whenever I or DP are away, we normally talk about it beforehand (tomorrow DP is going to be away so it's going to be just you and me for bathtime, story time and bedtime), and then when it happens, we explain before he asks (DP's in London today, so who's going to be doing your bath?) etc. He seems to accept it just fine as long as he's been told. Then when he asks, he's already had that conversation several times, so it's quite easy to explain (or he explains it back to us).

There's a Shirley Hughes story called Abel's Moon, where dad goes away regularly on business leaving the boys with their mum. Your DS is a little young for the story yet, but just going through the pictures, look the boys are enjoying being with their mum, now daddy has come home etc. might be a good starting point.

Is it worth getting a UK atlas and marking it to show where daddy is tonight?

When my elder DD was two she called Friday Daddy-day as she had worked out the pattern of what we did. The weekends he wasn't home could be tricky, but it was their normal so they didn't really get upset about it.
DH would always do something fun with them on a Saturday morning when he was home.

Thank you so much for these, they're great!

He can usually FaceTime but not every night without fail, and I don't really know until that evening.

I feel like he's too young to understand the concept of 'daddy will be back Friday', but it's probably worth saying it anyway.

DH does pull his weight when he's home tbf so if he's away all week we'll have a nice family weekend, or DH will take DS out while I catch up on the work I should have been doing that week 😅

@Mummy08m voice notes is a great idea, I hadn't thought of that. Unsure if he'll understand the concept of a voice note not being a conversation but worth a try! He definitely understands the concept of FaceTime.

@Mariposista the notes idea is lovely. He's a bit young for that atm I think? but will definitely be doing this when he's a bit older. I hit give it a try next time actually and maybe put a photo of daddy on the note

@FriedEggChocolate I'll have a look at that book, thank you. I also really love the map suggestion!