I recently had an amazing opportunity to take a role at a hyper growth tech company. The only catch was that it required me to spend one month away from My wife and two kids. In this blog I will share with you the ways my wife and I made sure that I still got to spend quality time with my kids even though they are in Sydney and I am in Boston.
When I first found out about the intensive training that my company provides I had a conversation with my wife that went something like this :
Me: "One month in Boston"
Her: "But you really want this job right?"
Me: "Yeah I do"
Her: " Then you are a dickhead if you don't go for it"
Me: "You're awesome"
Her: "You now owe me a Coach handbag"
My wife is very understanding very capable and she also has a foul mouth . This is important because it brings me to the first and most important of spending meaningful quality time with your family when you are working and living on the other side of the world for an entire month.
Step 1 : Make sure your signifigant other is on board. If your SO is not on board it will make it very hard to spend quality remote time with your family while you are away.
Step 2 : Sort your tech out. I made sure when I left Sydney I had the ability to call my family the moment I landed in Boston 23 hours later. I did this by purchasing a sim card for my mobile phone before I left Sydney. Video calls are probably the best invention of the last decade for a traveling salesperson with a family (a narrow field but try and dispute it) . So if its Skype or FaceTime make sure you both have accounts.
Step 3 : Consistancy when you make contact. Especially relevant if you are in different timezone. This one can be hard when your trans Atlantic counterpart is trying to drag you the pub , but I make sure that I call my SO when at the same time every day. It creates a time that the little ones look forward to . If you cant make that time make sure you let your partner know ASAP.
Of course remote quality time with your family is not going to as good as physical quality time but it is sometimes unavoidable . I found that these have helped my SO and me would love to hear anyone elses ideas. Oh and make sure you buy that Coach bag.
If you dont have a job that allows you to spend time with your family check out the average awesome dad guide to Sydney Workplaces
