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International Work Trip for one week - advice?
massdreams
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I work at a college, and I have been asked to accompany one of our professors and her class for the week long trip to Amsterdam that is required for her class. This would be paid for fully by work, and I have never been there, so it is a pretty cool opportunity. The students are 12 grad students, but half are pretty young (22 years old - they are doing a special master's that comes right after their senior year). I was excited about the idea at first, but am a bit nervous because this is Amsterdam, where everything is legal. I'm talking with my boss about liability concerns. But I'm also getting more nervous about DH being home for a week with the two boys. I know it would be a long and hard week for me if the roles were reversed. DH said he is supportive of me going, but I wanted advice from any of you that have been gone for this long (it would be from a Saturday to a Saturday) on what I could do to help make things for DH as easy as possible. He works part time and stays home with the boys a few days a week, so he is a very hands on dad. But a week alone with two kids is exhausting for everyone!
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Re: International Work Trip for one week - advice?
BTW, I think it's really funny how us working moms have to make extra preparation before going on a business trip. Our SOs don't. I know that moms usually take care of most kid related items. But I told my DH before my last business trip that he would be in a world of hurt if anything suddenly happened to me. To which he responded, I would have the same problem because he does so much around the house. And to be fair, he is a great husband about helping around the house. But I told him I could hire out his chores easier than he could mine
:PAs for liability, they are adults so if they choose to check out coffeeshops or whatever, that is on them, I wouldn't worry. Going there w/ high school students would be a totally different story. That would be like saying if you took a class trip anywhere w/ students over 21 & the students got drunk outside of class time on their own and something bad happened, the instructor would be liable. The best thing to do is to give them info about being safe, making sure they know areas to not venture into after dark and they'll figure their own way through. As an instructor I probably wouldn't visit a coffeeshop while I was there just in case though (and I don't necessarily mean to partake in what they're selling, just in general, I would personally be cautious about being seen there).
I traveled to Korea for 4 weeks last summer. It was fine. DH was also deployed at the time, so my parents came down and took care of DD. But honestly, DH has stayed with DD for up to a week before and they had a blast together.
Just go and have a wonderful time!
Edited to say that I also think it's ridiculous that women are expected to make extra special preparations for their husbands to care for their own children when they go away. My DH is perfectly capable of going to the damn drug store and buying Tylenol for DD or calling her doctor if need be.
I don't think it's ridiculous to prepare. I just don't think it crosses many men's minds to leave instructions/extra supplies/etc. I agree that marriage requires us to help each other. But I don't think my DH even thinks to arrange/suggest that I get a babysitter/family member to come help if he's travelling all week for work. It's just assumed that since the majority of kid related things falls to me, I can handle it.
I guess this brings up an interesting question on how "traditional" are the household duties split in your life? I know my husband is a huge help in our family but it's typical male duties... lawn, paying bills, handyman, dishes after dinner, etc. And I handle more typical female duties... kids, shopping, cooking. So I don't feel like he doesn't pull his weight. It's just that his items are not as critical during a one week absence.