Child Caring: Easing Disruption of Business Trips

As parents, we prefer the once-in-a-while trip.  It feels less disruptive.  For children, the opposite may be true... "Babies need proximity and regular contact to form a relationship," says child psychologist Julie Dunsmore of Hamilton College, a specialist in children's social and emotional development...  If a parent is gone often, a baby sees him or her as unpredictable. Dunsmore tells parents who travel to expect their babies to treat them like a stranger when they return.  "You have to work back into the relationship slowly and take extra efforts at it," she says, whether you're gone only once for a three-night trip, or regularly.