I miss you, I miss you not !

As you would have known, I am now baby sitting my 2 children (aged 12 and 9). I have been playing the role of mother for the past 3 weeks. My wife went to her native place and is coming back tomorrow. It means that today will be my last day of holding full responsibilities of the children.

Last night, I sat down together with my children and asked whether they missed their mom. My daughter paused for a moment. My son straight away asked, "What does 'missed your mom' means?".

That question threw me into a new world.

I explained to my son that, if he feels like want to see his mom or need to talk to her or ask her or hug her, then that is what we call as "missing you" feeling.

My son shook his head and said "No". My daughter was a little more elaborate. She said that, we talked to mom very frequently (we even called her to check where did she keep her dress), all our needs were somehow fulfilled and we were engaged on some kind of activities throughout.

I didn't want to continue this topic with my children any more because, I thought that they will be pressuring themself to have the feeling of "miss someone". Based on their statement, I believe that as long as they are engaged on some kind of activities, they will have no time to have the feeling of missing someone. Apart from that telephones kept all of together all the time.

Hugging and patting are normal act in our family, therefore the children always get some hugging and patting from someone all the time. So, my children did not even miss that part in order to invoke the "miss" feeling.

My question is, must wehave the "miss you feeling" when someone has to be away from someone for a certain period of time?

If you don't "miss" that person, does it mean you don't value them in your life?
If you "miss" that person, does it mean you have high value for them?

Can I say, my children did not have any "miss you" feeling because thay never thought that their mother was away from them.

Anyhow this conclusion is just for my children.

As for me (the husband of this person who is away for 3 weeks) I miss her, I miss her I miss and I regret that the 3 weeks is coming to and end.!

Is it a must that we should have an answer for : I miss you, I miss you not! question?