Flying Coach!

While rushing into a meeting, it occured to me that I should write something about my current short business trip to US - and yes I had to fly coach :(

For starters, it was rather a last minute decision (not mine!) to fly down only for a week. The idea of being away from the family and flying soooo far to the US of A, was giving me a tug of anguish.

The family was well prepared for it but preparing S for one week on 'no Mommy'was hard. From experience, I can say that it is always better to prepare kids for the future- which could even be a week of lots of time with granparents and father. S is quite a reasonable kid, I must say, provided you give him the right reasons!

Until I was about to catch a taxi for the airport, he asked me multiple follow-up questions:

- "Why do you have to go?"
- "Who is your boss - is that a he or a she?"
- "Can i speak to he/she? I will scold them for this."
- I was trying to show him the positive side (read bribe) of toys from US, he goes "Why? I don't need more toys? My room is full of them"...:(

Ending it with the most dreaded statement - "Mama, don't go!". That very moment, you would want to give it all up, put in your papers, tell your bosses - family is priority, and just be with your baby. Finally, I did manage to explain to him which perhaps would mean little to him. Phew. These goodbyes are emotionally draining.

Here I am in NY now, leading a forced bachelor life, which too is not bad, except that I am not used to it. This is my second time to US and the first thing that strikes are the beautiful country roads lined with trees in fall colours - quite picturesque. The other thing that strikes you is technology, overdone sometimes! And, the third which is different from last time I was here is the Presidential election and signs of recession everywhere. Whichever form of media you pick, its either Obama or the banks. Overall, this has been a nice experience to take back.

Travel for working mothers is somewhat inevitable. The best thing (which may not be wise sometimes) to do is to accept only the critical ones and then limit the duration. There are some professions, such as consulting, where one has to be at the client site for 4 days a week and be back for the weekend - great profession when you are single, difficult with kid, impossible with kid(s)! As you go along, the choice between the travel-linked assignments, which add tremendous weight to your CV and your priorities, is a tough call. You got to be lucky if your management would understand that - infact, they should. After all, they have to believe in diversity!! :)