Saturday, March 17, 2007

Misadventures of a Traveling Mother

Most of my travel experiences involved business trips during my actuarial consulting days. Boy, did I have some major juggling to do!

I was a newly-singled mom, living alone in New Jersey without family support. On two occasions, when my daughter was 2 years old, I had to take her with me across country when I had to be away from home for over a week performing claim audits. Before the trips I would scout around for a daycare center close to my client's location and arrange to enroll her for the week. Luckily she was a friendly, sociable toddler and adapted well.

Once I had to fly with her home to Virginia, drop her off with my family and then catch a connection to my job site. Phew! No wonder I was so skinny! I would call her every morning and every night to check on her.





Some of my girlfriends, who are now new mothers, ask me how I did it. All I can say is that I just had to find a way to keep my job and take care of my child. I am very proud of myself.

My daughter now is a flying veteran. She currently flies as an unaccompanied minor at least twice a year to visit her father in New York City. I'm still on pins and needles until she lands and I get his phone call. Of course she's not fazed at all! (smile)

1 comment:

Chelle Sandell said...

It's amazing how single moms adapt to just do what has to be done. It's automatic. I look back and wonder how we got through it but my oldest smiles and says he is proud of me.