Fantastic Friday - it is fantastic to use technology to balance home and work.
A few months ago my husband, Darren, was doing work that required him to travel out-of-state for two weeks at a time and then work at home for two weeks. Our family is a close one. We enjoy each other's company and like to hang out, laugh, watch movies and music videos together. So having him gone for extended periods for a long period of time was hard on all of us. But, I put on my big girl panties and my fake it until I make it dress and decided to make the best of the situation. I put technology to work and created a work around.
First I gave my son a pre-paid cell phone and let him text his father as much as he wanted. Even though Darren could not always text back immediately, he would text back when he was able and this made my son feel like he was still in touch with his dad. My teenie bopper already had her own cell phone with unlimited texts and she and her dad had some great conversations throughout the day. My twins got me to send emails to their daddy during the day and liked it when he responded to them later in the day.
Second, and this has a funny story attached, we used Skype. Each morning my husband and I would start a Skype call and as the children woke up they could come and talk with their dad. They all got to see their dad and pray with him before they went to school. At dinner time I would put the computer on the kitchen counter and we would all eat dinner together. The kids also had private conversations by taking the computer with them to another room. It really made the children feel better to be able to see their Dad each day. The funniest thing is that Darren and I would start a Skype call in the evening and each go about doing whatever we had to do: I would write and do household stuff, Darren would work on his sales stuff. It was nothing fancy, just living life, but being able to see and hear each other. A few times we fell asleep with the call still going on and the teenie bopper walked in because she heard her father snoring. She laughed at us falling asleep together.
- fantastic Friday, technology, home and work balance
If you are a family that has one member who travels for work, technology to keep your family close and connected. Things like cell phones, text messages, email and Skype can make the away periods better. So, the question for you this fantastic Friday is what is your secret for making work travel bearable?
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