I rarely travel for business. And by rarely, I mean I haven’t in 6 years. But my husband? Well, at this very moment, he’s at the Frankfurt airport, having just arrived from Uzbekistan. He’s waiting for his flight to Milan. Three days ago he was in China and the week before that he was in India.
This means the kids and I are home alone a lot. While it’s nothing like being a single parent, it is difficult to balance my career and the kids alone a good portion of the time. Here are 10 things I’ve learned over the years on how to manage with a road warrior husband.
1. Put his schedule on your calendar. Before he goes, he sends me his flight itinerary. I use gmail and it recognizes the itinerary and asks me if I want it on my calendar. I select yes. It’s even smart enough for time zones. So, at any given time, it’s easy for me to know where he is.
To keep reading click here: 10 Tips to Survive Life with a Road Warrior
My husband has been traveling to his mom and dad’s for almost the entire year (drunk dad fell on drunk mom, broke her knees, put her in the hospital, where she died, dad had surgery and went into rehab, etc, etc, etc).
Every time he would get back home, we would have these awful fights, including one where he threw a five pound block of cheese to the floor, which was just dumb because what did the cheese ever do to him?
We have worked very hard to change the pattern, but you are right – you save up all those frustrations because you can’t get mad at the people you work with and you can’t yell at your father when he is in the hospital (I would have yelled at my FIL), so where can you do it where there will not be serious repercussions? The person who loves you the most. 🙂
It took us a while to figure out what was happening. Once we did, it became a lot easier. People who don’t experience a traveling spouse don’t understand the difficulties you can face.
I hope your inlaws recover.
I don’t believe the deceased Mother-in-Law will be able to recover.
Oops. My apologies, Gold Digger. I’m sorry about your mother-in-law.
No worries. 🙂 It’s complicated because my in-laws hate(d) me. (Because I eat bacon wrong, among other things.)
My husband is out of town at least 3 days a week, frequently all week. Communication is key and not to assume you know what the other person is thinking or their motives are. Here are my tips:
1. Split the work – This is related to talking about things right away but we split setting up appointments or making calls. I handle the kids but my husband has the house.
2. Kid appointments – I always have to cover doctor appointments and emergency, but if my husband is in town he takes them everywhere. We didn’t always do this and found at the end of the year, I had no vacation left and he had a ton.
3. Split the time on the weekends – My husband comes home on Fridays ready to have some serious family time. I on the other hand has been having serious family time all week, I want to be ALONE! Or I am stressed because I have a million errands to run. At first, my husband would just take the list and do them, trying to be helpful. Really I wanted to do them by myself while he stayed home with the kids. Also, there are just certain things, like laundry, that I need done to feel like I am ready for Monday. Now we talk what needs to get done on the weekend and come up with a joint plan.
Having a traveling spouse is whole different level of work. It wasn’t our plan when we first decided to have kids, but has given my husband great opportunities. I do agree that you shouldn’t let it hold you back from what you want to do though. This is something I have to be better about.
Number 3 is super important, in my book. Sometimes I just need to get away from the responsibility, and the kids love to do fun things with dad!