Advice on Lessening Trunkiness for Missionary's Families

 I read an unusual bit of advice by Sister Marilyn Gee wife of Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission president James Gee on lessening trunkiness for missionary's families:

As President Gee interviews I visit with the missionaries who are waiting. I love to listen to them chatter away. Sometimes I learn something that I can pass along to my husband or to the parents. One thing I have picked up is that often parents do a count down of how much longer their missionary has to serve. (I did the same thing with my children.) When we arrived in the Oklahoma City Mission I realized that part of the mission culture is to try not to speak about going home and how much times is left. It makes it easier to concentrate on the work and to not get homesick. I would suggest that you can do countdowns at home on calendars and with the family, but you will help your missionary the most if you don't include them in the countdown, especially when the end is getting near. It is hard not to get "trunky." I hope that little bit of information is helpful.

 I guess this information would apply to many families just not to my own.  Although we are on our third missionary daughter, we don't even discuss with our missionary in our weekly emails nor in the twice a year phone call how much time they have left nor have we ever counted down in any way. Usually we hear something about going back to school right before they come home.  I guess there are a bunch of trunky families out there.