As I often write about in this blog, I travel for work. A LOT. As my schedule unfolded last week, one day looked like this:
4 am - Leave Orlando
7 am - Arrive in Atlanta
9 am - Depart Atlanta for Phoenix
1 pm - Arrive in Phoenix for meetings.
5 pm - Back at airport for flight to LaGuardia.
8 am following day - meeting in NYC.
So you've been gone more than you've been home and you're starting to feel guilty about leaving the kids so much. The solution: Take the kids on your next business trip.
Good idea? Maybe. Maybe not.
For family travel writers, bringing a kid is a regular event. At the first-ever Family Travel Conference in New York City, we invited writers to come and bring a child. Then we incorporated the kids into the conference, gave them assignments and made them a part of the entire event. In that case, bringing kids on a business trip is not only OK, it's better.
But most mom business travelers are not family travel writers. They're business people who travel for business reasons. Then, bringing the kids isn't always the right thing to do.
What gift will you give yourself this holiday season?
Really? You're not planning to give yourself a give this year? You're feeling guilty about spending money on yourself when you are spending so much money already on everyone else?
Then you need a value reality check.
A hazard of the job: That you will likely miss something while away from home. Mom guilt - it's inevitable if you travel without the kids. Someone will have a meltdown, forget their homework or get an upset stomach.
And you will get that dreaded text from your child. She needs you. Right now. And you know you can't be there.
985,242. That's the number staring back at me from my frequent flyer account page. Quickly scrolling through emails this morning, I noticed the airline's monthly update, which I always check against my records. The monthly statement showed the standard information, an upgrade on my next flight to Atlanta, and the breakdown of my monthly, annual and total miles. I almost closed the email before moving on to the next task. As it happens, I scrolled down too fast and the bottom line, big number suddenly jumped out at me. 985,242! Close to 1 million. I almost couldn't believe it. Almost.
Across the aisle from me is a mom with her 4-year-old twins. One is sleeping on her. The other is kicking the seatback in front of him, irritating the passenger in 10F. Meanwhile, the dad sits calmly in the next row, working on his laptop.
Periodically, the mom asks for something from the overhead bin. She can't get up because of the sleeping child. Still, Dad's face shows his irritation as he maneuvers the laptop aside and gets up to dig around for the bag she needs.
