Your husband may truly feel a need to stay close to his parents. Or he may be giving that reason when deep down the real reason is that he simply doesn't want to do it. You'll have to feel that one out.
If he truly feels that need to stay close, it's a personal thing to him that may or may not ever change. Steps to take toward possible change would be sitting down with him and his folks and talking about it, and taking some trips of increasing length to see if his separation anxiety lessens. But realize that his feelings might not change over time and you may have to resign yourself to a compromise.
Personally, I'd have no trouble leaving for extended trips if my parents were still alive. My mother finally passed at age 91 about 5 years ago, and we'd already been living 1000 miles from her for two decades... you get the picture. The way I see it, a man leaves his father and mother and joins his wife, and the two become one. Parents are loved, but are not part of the marriage. Everyone's different, though.
Mike G.
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. --Frederick Douglass
photo: Yosemite Valley view from Taft Point
