Business Trips and Your Children

When we travel on business trips, we are always concerned about having the right materials, staying connected with the office, and ensuring that we have our laptop and personal effects. What we often do not think about is our children at home. Depending upon the age of your children, it can be quite traumatic when you leave town unexpectedly. Many children will not respond very well to our leaving. How then do we handle our business out-of-town, while at the same time making sure our children understand?

We can help our children to understand business trip much easier before we leave. Most parents wait until the last minute to announce that they are leaving town for a business trip. While this is a good choice for toddler age children, it is a very poor choice for every other age group. Toddlers tend to have a much more open mind and take things as they come. Older children have a tendency to dramatize things and to be traumatized when surprised at the last minute.

The most important thing that you can do to prepare your children for your impending business trip is to explain why you are going. Obviously explaining the nuts and bolts of your job is not the way to go. Instead, concentrate your explanation on how the trip will affect them. Explain exactly how long you will be gone, and when and how you are going to contact them while you are away. Children are creatures of habit, and they will adapt if they know what to expect in advance. Allow them to ask as many questions as they need, and answer them honestly.

While you are away on your business trip, make sure that you spend the time to keep your promises. If you say that you will contact them every day at four o’clock after school, then you need to make sure that you do that. If you keep your promises while you are away on your business trip, then future trips will be that much easier where your children are concerned.

When you speak to your children on the telephone, make sure that you ask them specific questions about their day. Also tell them specific things about yours. Tell them about how high in the sky the plane was. Using specific examples helps your child to maintain normalcy in your absence.

Make sure that you clear your schedule for the time immediately following your return. This is the time that you should be spending with your family. Being away on a business trip is difficult, and your family will want to be near you when you return. The last thing that you want to end up doing is working late on the day of your return. Plan a special outing with your family, and follow through. This will give the children something to look forward to for when you return, and will often make the trip easier for them to bear.

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