You become a very good juggler. For example, my husband is leaving for a work trip to Ireland today, right after my son’s baseball game. My mom is coming to the game, spending the night and picking me up at the airport tomorrow once I arrive home from the Type A Conference in Charlotte.
It’s not ideal but sometimes you have to lean on friends and family to make it work. So how do we do it?
- A master calendar is mandatory. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist. Similarly, in my mind, you are not allowed to write “maybe” events on the calendar. Unless you know it’s happening for sure, don’t put it on my calendar. Use a sticky note or make a note in your own calendar (*sneaks stare at the husband*) but don’t make me get the white out ready once it doesn’t happen.
- Know when to give and when to push. There will be times when you both are scheduled to be out of town at the same time. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the number of days, day of the week and what’s going on with the kids’ activities and their calendar. It is possible for grandma to come down for the weekend, or is there a big game or scouts outing that requires a lot of coordination?
- Having help also helps. We quickly realized that we’re both working, and that cleaning the house was taking away precious time with our kids. My dad needed something extra, so now he comes over every other week to clean the house (and we pay him), plus he usually gets to see the kids at one of their games.
And we’re just talking about kids. But our fur kids, the two puppies, also need walks, potty breaks and lots of attention.
Travel, especially business travel, is not glamorous. It only looks that way because you only share the fun things – a good dinner, a minute in the pool, a welcoming hotel room – on your social networks. What you don’t see are the flight delays, cab rides and time spent in windowless conference rooms.
But with constant communication and a good network, we make it work. How do you make it work?
Tonja's Travels 