AITA? Teens and extended summer trips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

No. If the issue is actually being away from the kids for 10 weeks, then there isn’t a difference.
The issue is obviously something else that isn’t immediately obvious to me. I agree with another poster that my husband a i would both tell the other one to have a great summer.

Why don’t you just spit it out and say what the actual problem is?

[Anonymous]

So your husband and you agreed that you could spend multiple months per year with your family. And now, some years later he is bummed because he got a dog and you cannot board the dog for weeks at a time (or fill in some other animal). I still don’t get why he cannot get some sort of pet care for this animal and come for a week if that was the original deal. And if he got this pet over your objection, then he is the problem.

That said, there seems to be a lot of room for compromise and you are not looking for solutions. Are you still super pissed about moving to Texas? Are you super mad about the pet? Because your anger isn’t helping.

[Anonymous]

So as I understand it the issue is: you guys move to a city of his choice and you agreed on the caveat you guys would leave for months at a time because you don’t actually like living there. Then he got pets that can’t be left alone for months and is refusing to leave the city you hate at all/for more than a day or two, so you’re saying that you plan to travel as was originally discussed. Have I got that right?

I’m not sure which of you is more TA but neither of you is particularly considerate and one if not both are bad communicators. I think you’re probably headed for divorce if you can’t sort it out, sorry. My recommendation would be to discuss moving somewhere you can both tolerate actually living full time.

[Anonymous]

Given the trickle truth from OP, I can’t tell if she is a troll or not, but no one mentioned the biggest issue I have with this which is…SEX! Going that long without or with just a quick visit or two would not be preferable to either of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

Oh, so the "per situation" was "pet situation"?

Yes, he got them over my objections (for specifically those reasons - inability to travel, or at least making travel expensive as sitters are needed throughout the entire time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

Oh, so the "per situation" was "pet situation"?

Yes, he got them over my objections (for specifically those reasons - inability to travel, or at least making travel expensive as sitters are needed throughout the entire time.

You guys are doomed. You DGAF about his pets or his desire to stay with the family. Have fun with the divorce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So your husband and you agreed that you could spend multiple months per year with your family. And now, some years later he is bummed because he got a dog and you cannot board the dog for weeks at a time (or fill in some other animal). I still don’t get why he cannot get some sort of pet care for this animal and come for a week if that was the original deal. And if he got this pet over your objection, then he is the problem.

That said, there seems to be a lot of room for compromise and you are not looking for solutions. Are you still super pissed about moving to Texas? Are you super mad about the pet? Because your anger isn’t helping.

I don’t think she sounds that mad. I mean, her husband is asking her to cancel all of her plans for herself and the kids for the summer at the last minute, for no reason, and he has no alternative plans.

This seems like a really, really big ask. What are the kids supposed to do all summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

I think by intentionally misread you mean failed to magically intuit a blatant typo, but yes that is a game changing piece of info!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given the trickle truth from OP, I can’t tell if she is a troll or not, but no one mentioned the biggest issue I have with this which is…SEX! Going that long without or with just a quick visit or two would not be preferable to either of us.

Yes. This would be a much bigger issue for my husband than not seeing the kids for the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NTA but could soon be the ex if not the choice of wife and husband to be apart. For some this works, but should be in agreement and not ha-ha, you can’t be remote so you can’t come! Lots of NY families have dad work in NY while kids and wife in Hamptons or Cape Cod for summer.

But I said in my OP he’s remote as well.

No you didn’t! Reread your op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

I think by intentionally misread you mean failed to magically intuit a blatant typo, but yes that is a game changing piece of info!

I didn’t realize there was a typo. No need to get us upset about this. Anyway, this thread has taken a strange turn. Not interested in it anymore. Certainly don’t need Jeff to highlight it in his case summaries. So, please don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

I think by intentionally misread you mean failed to magically intuit a blatant typo, but yes that is a game changing piece of info!

Come on, pp. I read that he was invited to come and something had changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

I think by intentionally misread you mean failed to magically intuit a blatant typo, but yes that is a game changing piece of info!

I didn’t realize there was a typo. No need to get us upset about this. Anyway, this thread has taken a strange turn. Not interested in it anymore. Certainly don’t need Jeff to highlight it in his case summaries. So, please don’t.

Not interested = people think YATA and you can't deal with it. Good luck - you’re going to need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

Oh, so the "per situation" was "pet situation"?

Yes, he got them over my objections (for specifically those reasons - inability to travel, or at least making travel expensive as sitters are needed throughout the entire time.

You guys are doomed. You DGAF about his pets or his desire to stay with the family. Have fun with the divorce.

I mean, if he wanted the family to stay, then he could find something somewhat enticing about staying where he is. Join a pool or something.
I mean, who wants to spend the summer sitting at home in Texas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is right? I work fully remote and have permission to work from anywhere. So during the summer I am talking the teens to my hometown (amazing, cool city) for 2 months. Kids love it. DH put himself in a position where it’s a bit harder to join, due to a complicated per situation he caused himself. Also he just doesn’t want to do it. Now he’s angry. AITA?

Yes, not only are YTA but your DH also has grounds for legal proceedings. You don’t get to unilaterally decide to relocate your kids for two months and deprive the other parent of access without his consent.

This is hilarious.

DH is shorthand for husband. They are married and until they divorce they both have full custody of their children and there is no scenario where a summer trip would be a legal issue.

It sounds like the husband is jealous the mom and kids are going to have fun without him.

I honestly don’t get how people are saying this is okay. So as a mom who has a non telework friendly job, my teleworking DH can just inform me that he is taking the kids to spend the entire summer with his family in another state and I have no recourse to prevent him from doing so and effectively depriving me of seeing my children for 8-10 weeks? Thankfully he isn’t an a**hole and would never dream of doing so but still that just doesn’t seem right.

What if rather than being teens the children were preschool aged or younger? Does that change your perspective? This isn’t a case of DH just being jealous of missing out on a fun experience but rather a significant chunk of time in his children’s life.

So even if it were a great opportunity for your kids, you'd say no because it's not good for you?

That's a bummer.

They’re going to spend a summer in a op’s (self-proclaimed) “amazing cool” hometown”, not participating in some transformative irreplaceable opportunity. Sure it will probably be fun for the kids but it doesn’t justify or necessitate shutting DH out and separating the family for an entire summer rather than just spending a couple weeks there.

Are people who send their kids to camp for the shutting the parents out of the kids’ lives?
You are being very dramatic here.

Do you truly not see a difference between two parents jointly deciding to send their kids to camp for 10 weeks versus one parent unilaterally deciding to travel for 10 weeks with their kids while excluding the other parent against their wishes?

I think you intentionally misread - of course he was invited. He chose not to come due to pet reasons. He was the one who got those pets.

Oh, so the "per situation" was "pet situation"?

Yes, he got them over my objections (for specifically those reasons - inability to travel, or at least making travel expensive as sitters are needed throughout the entire time.

You guys are doomed. You DGAF about his pets or his desire to stay with the family. Have fun with the divorce.

I mean, if he wanted the family to stay, then he could find something somewhat enticing about staying where he is. Join a pool or something.
I mean, who wants to spend the summer sitting at home in Texas?

The enticing thing is HIM. You know, the man you married and claim to love. Jesus you really are doomed.