Friday, October 26, 2007
The Business Traveling Parent
Over the last month or so, I've been doing a lot of business travel. My wife got me the book The Business Traveling Parent: How to Stay Close to Your Kids When You're Far Away the other day at the library and I read it on one of my flights. Quick read with some good ideas. I scanned the ones that seemed like they'd work best for my family (download). On this last trip to DC, I did the letter on itinerary swap, hotel stationary, postcard, and story book over the phone ideas and it seemed to go well with the kids. If others have suggestions, please let me know.
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3 comments:
My dad used to get us little gifts/souvenirs from time to time and I liked that. I wouldn't recommend it for every trip (you don't want your kids to get greedy!) but once in a while lets them know you were thinking about them while you were away.
Thanks for the suggestion. There will certainly be trips where I bring home little gifts - especially from conferences - but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum because, as you point out, I don't want the kids to get greedy or materialistic about it.
My dad set aside time to play basketball or soccer with us on the weekends. And this was a man in his 50's trying to keep up with a rumbustious group of kids and teens, yet he was on the court holding his own. He didn't do this often, but when he did it made for numerous unforgettable bonding experiences. I'll write more about it sometime this week; he turned 76 last week and I promised him I would put together a list of my fondest memories with him. Not one of those memories will be about a toy or a gift, but rather about an event that we still manage to laugh about during our weekly phone calls no matter how many times we've brought it up. Like playing with JD today and having so much fun imagining we're playing in front of 100K people for the world championship--I believe that's what any parent, business traveler or not, should strive for. But if not, you can always differ to the uncle or aunt, and that's fine too. I cant' wait till our next outing.
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