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iQuestions Faculty, Joe White 
 
 
Question: 
 
What if dad travels a lot? That's hard on a mom. What do I do? 
 
Answer:  
 
Traveling dads, traveling moms. Being a parent, it’s almost an 
oxymoron—isn’t it?—traveling and being a parent. 
 
I have to travel a lot in my business, and you know what? It was hard. 
The saddest thing that I ever saw in my life was the rearview mirror of 
my car, when I’d leave my home for sometimes a week or two, and I’d 
see my home in the rearview mirror. It killed me. 
 
Coming back home, I’d drive through the night to get home, just to 
see my kids sound asleep. But back home, my bride—and she 
deserves a crown in heaven—my bride would support me.  
 
You know, interestingly enough, my kids want to do what I do, and 
they don’t want to do what I do because necessarily in the world’s 
eyes it would be the greatest job—I think it’s the greatest job in the 
world—but it’s because my wife supported me. She never complained. 
She never was mad at my job because it took me out of the house 
sometimes a lot. She always supported me, when I was gone. 
 
To the man who does travel—or to the woman who does travel—my 
friend in Dallas, Bobby Lord, has the best quote on this. He said, “You 
know, it’s okay to be gone, but when you’re home, you can’t be gone.” 
 
Traveling is difficult, but when I’m home, and I’m still traveling in my 
mind, then I’m losing as a dad. When I’m home, I’ve got to be 
 
 
doubling my efforts. My boss has got to understand that when I’m 
home, for me, it’s family first. I just got a book, two pager, by my 
grandson—and it could have been my boy, since we had moments like 
this—but it’s entitled Fishing Book, and the one page in this book says, 
“I wint”—he was only probably five when he wrote this—“fishing with 
trot line and I chout a big catfish.” (sic) 
 
Well, I was in the boat when he caught that catfish. I got to run that 
trout line with that little guy, and I wish I was in his life all day, every 
day. I love that child that much. I’m not. But the days I’m with him 
are quality days.  
 
No matter how much you’re gone, no matter how much you’re 
traveling, when you’re home, give it all. Hang your work up on your 
tree outside your house. Hang it to stay, until you leave the home 
again and go back out to travel some more.  
 
You can do amazing things in your time at home, if you’ll be sure to 
prioritize your kids and, in some cases, prioritize your husband or 
prioritize your wife. Traveling people can raise wonderful, wonderful 
children. It’s okay to be gone—but when you’re home, you can’t be 
gone. 
White -2- 
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