One of the most common things you’ll hear current or potential over-the-road (OTR) truck drivers say they wish they could change about the job is missing family time. It’s not easy for the truck driver or their family to adjust to being away for many days at a time, only to be home for a few days before leaving again.
One of the big topics for 2015 here at the QuickTSI blog is going to be truck driver health. We recently reported on tips for exercise and eating well, but is not a solid family life also a pillar of trucker health?
Connect Before You Go
One easy way to get your family involved with your career while slightly mitigating the sting of having you gone so long is to tell your family in advance of where you’ll be driving to and through. This type of activity not only helps keep them engaged with what you’re doing, but also offers opportunities for history lessons and learning new things, if you have children. Try putting a map up that they can place tacks in to track where you’ve gone.
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Once on the road, you can take pictures of the areas you are traveling and allow them to connect those images with whatever you discussed before leaving home. You can also send pictures and have your family research and identify what’s in the pictures. When you return home, have them tell you all that they’ve learned.
Knowing where you’re going isn’t just good for the kids either. Involving your spouse or significant other in the planning process also helps them stay mentally and emotionally engaged. Not having a loved one around for large periods of time is emotionally draining. When a partner can lay in bed alone and think about all the wonderful places they talked to you about before you left, it blunts the emotional pain of you not being there.
Connect While You’re Away
No matter what you do before you left, it’s still hard for your family while you’re away. Make sure you stay connected while you’re on the road. Having your presence in their lives, even if it’s just by phone or casual reminder, is sometimes all they need to keep loneliness at bay.
Before you leave, try hiding small gifts or notes of thanks or love around the house. While you’re gone, call your family and host an “over the air” scavenger hunt. You can still play games and entertain, even when you’re away.
Some board games don’t have to be played real time. A game like Battleship can be played with one half on the road and one half at home. Throughout the day you and your family member can text moves back and forth until a winner emerges. With the digital revolution upon us, apps like Words With Friends allow you to play interactive games with your family from your mobile device.
So you’ve made sure to provide love and support before you left and stayed connected while you were away, but what about when you get home? The void of your absence is best filled upon your return.
Connect When You Return
Sure you’ve done everything you can to stay connected while you’re away, but making sure you connect when you are home is just as important as connecting when you leave and while you’re gone. Upon your return, it’s important to replace the time that was missed.
After weeks on the road, it’s easy to come home and either vegetate or be so caught up trying to catch up that you unintentionally wind up neglecting your family. When you return, ask yourself if you have spent enough quality time with your kids and loved ones.
Asking them questions about what happened while you were gone is crucial to not just appearing engaged, but genuinely staying engaged. Making sure your level of emotional engagement is high isn’t just about pleasing your family, it’s good for you too.
Are you spending enough time deliberating with your significant other and catching up on everything that happened while you were away? By asking questions and staying in the here and now, your family will see that your time on the road hasn’t made you less engaged in what’s going on in their lives.
Staying connected with your family is just as important as your own personal health. Whether it be before you go, while you’re on the road, or upon your return, always make sure you’re properly taking care of your family.