Many jobs require extensive travelling which can disrupt one’s home life and be exhausting, but it’s part of building and sustaining your career. So, how do you keep in touch with loved ones at home while you’re out of town?
Kids, partners, and others need to feel that they can stay in contact with you even though you may be hundreds of miles away, even in another country. While working early mornings and late nights in different time zones, those at home need to know they are being thought about and you, too, need to know you’re missed and can be reached.
Tips for Keeping in Contact while Travelling
1. Face time or skyping is a must on a daily basis. There’s nothing like seeing each other’s faces even for brief chats to feel like you’re almost at home again.
2. When chatting tell everyone something about what you’re doing so they get a feel for what your day is like and similarly, ask about the details of their lives while at home. This gives the feeling of being nearby even when you’re so far away.
3. Somehow in the midst of your busy work day, get outside and shoot some pictures of the landscape you have travelled to. Send these photos home to give everyone another way to feel they know where you are.
4. If you can manage it, create a travel log if you are going to more than one location. Keep sending the landscapes home and everyone will have this way of joining in your experiences.
5. Plus, getting out and taking these photos gets you out of the hectic work environment gives you a chance to actually see where you’re working. A convention center or office building isn’t very homey, but spending some time in the surrounds of the environment you are visiting is pleasurable and a welcome break.
6. Once you’re home, sit with those you love and go over the photos filling everyone in on the experience of being in a foreign country or state they’ve never been to in the U.S.
7. Then choose the best landscape that seems to visualize most vividly the location you were working at and find a local artist to do a rendering of it for you. Once framed and hung at home, your family group will surely feel they’ve become part of your experience.
8. Over time, these framed paintings will help kids and partners feel they are a vital part of your experience away from home. You might create a travel wall of these paintings that everyone enjoys.
In this way, everyone travels with you in a sense as they really experience visually and vocally where you go and work. For kids, especially, this becomes a family activity rather than a time when mommy or daddy are away in remote places they can’t imagine.
The world starts to feel smaller and the family starts to feel closer even though there are times when you’re miles apart. This helps sustain closeness with your partner and kids building your relationships.
Actual distance doesn’t mean you have to have emotional distance.
Laurie Hollman, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst and author of Unlocking Parental Intelligence: Finding Meaning in Your Child’s Behavior found on Amazon and wherever books are sold. She is also a painter who delights in creating landscapes for travelling folks. Visit her website for more guidance, view her paintings, and if you wish contact her to do a rendering of your travels: http://lauriehollmanphd.com.