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Business Travel: When You Are the Homefront

Written by: Gretchen Koehler-Swaney

Article Overview: Business Travel is stressful for the traveler. How about the folks at home? What can you do?

Business Travel: When You Are the Homefront

You are at home and part of your life just took off on a plane for the next business trip. What can you do? After you get that pit in your stomach, the babies are screaming in the back, and you are in charge of stability, routine, and calm when you just want to cry. What can you do? You are now the single parent.

When will you be back to the airport? In a week? In 6 weeks? What's your plan? Do you have one? Here are your requirements: Take care of your kids and keep them in their routine. Take care of the house and all of those requirements. Stay connected with your business traveler. Take care of yourself to make sure your sanity stays intact.

How do you do that? 1. Keep your kids in their routine. What does that mean for you? Do you need to get up earlier to make sure they hit the bus/school/daycare? Do you need to get into work later? Does it mean extended daycare? It would help if you had a plan before he/she left, that way all you had to do was implement. Also, your kids can help. They need to help out. They live in the house too. What can they do? Babies can bang pans on the floor in the kitchen while you make dinner. Toddlers can tear lettuce for salad, and set the table. Bigger kids can run the microwave and do dishes. You can't do everything. They will want to help, let them.

2. Taking care of the house and all of the requirements can be daunting, but if you put together a list and maybe the business traveler can tackle some too. Making follow-up phone calls, prewriting checks, and so on can help.

3. Make sure you stick with your IM routine I mentioned in my "Staying Connected..." article. If your business traveler will be gone for extended periods of time, you can send care packages. The kids can add their art work for your package. Even if you are just sending socks and deoderant, it is always so great getting a package from home.

4. And now the hardest to master: Taking care of yourself. What do you do? It can be anything from engaging a babysitter for a night out even if it means a trip to the library, taking a walk at lunch time, or bringing home take out. Putting the kids to bed early can even be a treat. I remember growing up with friends who went to bed at 7:30 every night, but they read in their rooms until it was time for them to sleep. That also instills in them a routine of quiet time teaching them how to unwind before bed - a skill they will need as adults.

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Article Tags: art work, babies, babysitter, business traveler, business trip, care packages, checks, dishes, lettuce, microwave, periods, phone calls, sanity, single parent, socks, stomach, toddlers



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