If your partner is required to head off regularly for business trips, it’s important for you and your children that you maintain contact as much as possible. Thankfully, technology has allowed us to keep in contact even when we’re on the other side of the world. That means there are plenty of ways to ensure that your family unit doesn’t start to drift apart or feel alienated, and it might be a lot easier to keep those vital relationships stronger than you might have thought. If your partner is heading off for another business trip, here are some ideas that you might not have thought of.
Talk Regularly
For the partner that’s travelling and the one that’s staying home, it’s very easy to forget to talk. Staying connected, via phone calls, text messages, or even photos, is going to ensure that you maintain your connections no matter how far apart you are. Remaining close when there are regular business trips to contend with can feel like being in a long-distance relationship, and that’s notoriously difficult to maintain. A simple ‘good morning’ can change your partner’s day for the better. Choose your preferred ways of staying in touch, and make sure that every member of the family has a means of contacting every other member at any time.
Know Your Schedule
It will be easier for your family to touch base with you at a regularly allotted time if you know more about your business trip schedule. Travelling for business when you have a family is sometimes referred to as a guilt trip, but by communicating regularly, you can alleviate that guilt significantly. The more planned your business trip, the fewer issues you’ll have when it comes to touching base or for when there’s an emergency you need to know about. Look at travel management resources that will make it easier for you and your family to know where you are at all times, and keeping more closely connected will be much easier.
The Relationship Budget
One area that’s often overlooked when you’re in a relationship with someone who’s not always by your side is the budget. When we’re sitting at home or alone in a hotel room, there’s always going to be the temptation to splash out on takeaways or a trip to the hotel bar. If you keep treating yourself, then your partner is going to grow resentful, and that immediately puts a barrier between you. The pressures of being far away from each other are always going to be difficult, but by agreeing to a weekly budget and sticking to it, you are showing that you are still working together even when you may be on other sides of the world.
Staying close as a family always requires some practical planning, and that’s doubly true when one of the family members is ways for regular business trips. Make sure that you don’t try to play it by ear and hope for the best. Discuss the potential issues and start taking steps to address them before they start affecting your relationships. Being away from home is hard, and it’s just as hard to be left at home. Working on staying closer means that you’ll stay connected, no matter how flights away from each other you are.
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