Rotating gives you a chance to practice retirement. I loved it and miss it.
My kids are now in their mid 30’s. I worked 7x7 in the GoM from before their birth to after the younger one’s graduation in 2003. I then went 28x28 to Chad, Nigeria, Indonesia and EG.
One of my daughter’s friends once commented, when they were in JR High, that it was so cool that I could be there full time, half the time, when her dad could never be there. My kids definitely knew me better than their friends knew their dads. Eating lunch with them in elementary school was a blast, especially when I’d come directly there from offshore with my gray coveralls on and my son had convinced his whole class that his dad was an astronaut!
Children typically think it’s a great lifestyle as long as the parent at home AND the parent abroad work to make it so. Watched many newbies drive themselves crazy during 1st few hitches on. If married, it definitely takes 2. Not a lifestyle for those who are prone to jealousy.
You develop 2 different personalities. A work and a home personality. When I repatriated and returned to a M-F (5x2) job it nearly drove both my wife and I to a breaking point which had never occurred during our previous 30+ years of which I was rotational.
My son-in-law, engineer for a major EPC firm has stated numerous times how special my daughter is with him rotating to Angola, Gladstone, Perth, Algeria over their 10 years together. She knows and appreciates the lifestyle.
Hints, call only 1 time a week. For the spouse at home, never complain about something the rotator cannot handle from afar. Me to my wife: “If it’s truly an emergency, call 911, not the sat phone in Kome Village”…
4 years into 5x2, we’re still working on the adjustment of no lengthy alone time, but we’ll see it through.