I have joint custody<\/a> of my 7-year-old. This means she lives with us every other week—and the other weeks, she lives with her dad and stepmom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weeks when she’s not with us are never easy for anyone in our family, but she struggles most of all<\/strong>. In the days before the transition between homes, she becomes so anxious<\/a> that she has trouble sleeping and eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make it easier on her, we started a tradition of me and her little sister Bailey visiting her at school for lunch during those other weeks. We started with one lunch date every other week<\/a>, but midway through this last school year she asked me to come every day. That wasn’t possible every week, but I tried my darnedest to make it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because those daily lunch dates helped all three of us cope with being apart for a week at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n