Wanted: Road Warrior Mamas and their War Stories
ByI love being a woman for many reasons, but one of the highest on the list is because of the way women are so open to sharing information. I rarely come across a woman, in business or my personal life, that holds her cards close to her chest to maintain a competitive advantage. On the contrary, I find the women who give their knowledge, contacts, and recommendations freely are typically the most successful women I know.
Today, I’d like to start hearing from our Road Warrior sisters and the challenges they’ve faced in trying to balance a career that requires travel with kids at home. What was one of your most heartbreaking moments? How did you get through it? Is there something you now do, either before you leave or while you’re away, to keep connected with the family?
On December 19th, I will select one of the most dramatic stories posted here and give the woman who wrote it a free copy of my children’s book, My Mommy’s on a Business Trip (you can read more about the book at www.mommytrip.com). I will also compile the tips and post them to my website, www.dolcevitawoman.com. You don’t have to be an official Road Warrior to submit a story. Often, it’s the kids whose parents don’t travel much that are most effected by the occasional trip or two.
The following was the hair that broke the camel’s back:
I had recently gone back to work from Maternity Leave and needed to be in Dallas for a Regional Sales Meeting. I hadto be at the Airport by 3 pm for a mandatory dinner with the President of Sales at 6:30. At the last minute, my sitter cancelled and my husband couldn’t help because he, too was in Dallas RETURNING from a sales meeting. I needed to make a decision fast! I gathered my suitcase, packed my tiny 10-week-old (dreading to expose him to a nasty airplane), and called my husband to tell him “Meet me at terminal A5, I need to give you a VERY important package before you get on that plane!!” At 5:10 I handed Matthew to his daddy,they got on the plane back to Austin, and I continued to my very “important” meeting.
One month later, I became a stay-at-home-mom.
I traveled internationally in my most recent position. When I started in the position, I bought my children a world map and stickers. Everytime I travelled, we marked the location and discussed it both before and after the trip. It was great at keeping them engaged and interested in what Mom was doing.
Best of luck with the book.
I started my business years ago, pre-baby, so I’d have flexibility to be a mom when I became one. Fortunately, I didn’t have to travel much the first year, but when my son was 15 months, I found myself traveling more often.
The worst was one night a couple of months ago when my husband called at bedtime and I found myself sitting in a hotel room singing our songs over the phone for an hour to calm down my hysterical little boy. An hour later, he finally went down.
Since then, I learned to call multiple times earlier in the evening, while he walks around the house with the phone on speaker phone, just chatting with me.
Something so small, but it’s made a huge difference!
I traveled for my contracts for years, and I preferred taking my kids with me (I have 4). It was easier for me because I would be traveling for a contract for 1-6 months usually. So I just drove instead of flying, brought my kids, picked a hotel with a large room and kitchen, and always an indoor swimming pool. I normally paid a relative to come with me and watch them, like grandparents, etc. Then I just tacked an extra charge on my travel rate to cover it all. That’s when they were younger, once they got old enough for school (7yrs), I tried not to travel as much, but also found they handled it better and always brought them something back from the city. Since they had been with me on trips before, they knew what I was doing. I still bring them with me sometimes now that they’re older. It is worth the added cost, and they get travel experiences they might never get later. We just considered them long family vacations. They have been to France, Penns., Virginia, Kentucky, NYC, all over really. Later, I found my kids really enjoyed it, they love telling their school friends all the places they have been, and they loved staying in nice hotel rooms where you get to swim every night and you don’t get in trouble for jumping on the bed
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