Travelling Father

As part of my so called 9-5 I have to travel quite a bit and the past few weeks has seen this really come to the fore. First of all I had a week at HQ in Belgium that saw me away for four nights, two of which were on British Airways. Then five days later I headed off to Dubai and Saudi Arabia for nine days. Back to back trips that were certainly not my choice but had to be done. There are some interesting things that one learns and that come out of such trips though so lets go through them;

• Leaving is always the hardest part not only for you the traveler but also your spouse. I have found that its best just to be dropped at the "drop and go" section of the airport and get it out of the way. I also generally take Kim out for breakfast or lunch if the nanny is around
• The first flight is tough but once you land you get into the swing of things. The same seems to be true of your spouse. I have also been on the other end of the traveling arrangement and the sooner the stay at home spouse can get into a normal routine the better
• Technology is great. I make a plan regardless of time zones to FaceTime or Skype at least once a day and back this up with calls and sms's. Maintaining contact is key
• You will miss little steps if your child is young like mine. This is normal just be sure that you celebrate them when you get home
• Coming home is tough, adjustments will have to be made. The stay at home spouse will generally have gotten into a routine and this changes with your routine, accept this. Meanwhile I generally find that after international trips involving over night flights it takes me two to three days to recover. Unfortunately you just have to accept it and find a way to deal with it yourselves as there is no one size fits all solution.

Ultimately more than anything trust plays a huge part in the relationship with your spouse. Trust that the traveler will call, be ready to answer calls, show respect to the stay at home spouse. Trust that the stay at home spouse will do their best for the child but call if they need help or an ear.

Traveling away from a family is tough, but is also a fact of life these days. How you handle it is up to you but can be a lot easier than hard if you approach it the right way.