Trifter

From time to time it is necessary to be away from your children, whether it be for pleasure or business. Therefore, when children are young this can be a difficult time for them in their young lives. In most circumstances children are not old enough to understand that this is only temporary and that you will return.  However, if you follow these ten ( 10) effective guidelines you will find that your children will be able to deal much better with your absence.

1. Show the kids on a map where you will be. Read about unfamiliar places together and talk about what you might see.
2. Ask your child to keep a diary while you are gone, so he or she can fill you in on everything, when you return home.
3. You can take photos of some wonderful attractions with your digital camera and upload them to your laptop. Then when you chat with your child online, you will have all these wonderful photos to share with he or she. This always makes for great conversation because children are so eager to learn.
4. You may do the traditional thing by sending postcards showing scenes of where you went on a particular day. However, a postcard of your hotel  could offer tremendous comfort so he or she could actually see where you are staying.
5. Leave cassette tapes of bedtime stories to be played every night. Don’t  forget to say “good night,” at the end.
6. Call home at bedtime if possible and reassure them of your love.
7. Try to watch a television program the kids will watch and talk about it  with them when you call home.
8. Bring home gifts from a trip, but be aware they need not be expensive — a picture book will do if available, small packs of soap from the hotel, a little change for a treat, a few stickers for a collection or an inexpensive paperweight depicting a scene from your trip are all enough to show a child you missed them, while you were apart.
9. Mark a calendar with the dates you will be leaving and returning for a young or worried child and let him or her cross off the days until you return.
10. Take a child with you, if and when feasible, on your trips. Hotels can arrange for sitters during the day. You and your child can have wonderful evening adventures together that will never be forgotten.