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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. John Trent 
 
 
Question: 
 
I travel frequently as a result of my job. How can I keep connected at 
home when I'm on the road so much? 
 
Answer: 
 
If you travel a lot on your job then I want to just thank you for taking 
the time to click on this question.  
 
I’m telling you, that’s where I’ve been. I am a three million miler with 
American Airlines, all domestic. Add up the legs that it takes to do 
three million all domestic, just on that one airline. I’m at a lot of other 
ones as well. I’ve spent a lot of nights in hotels.  
 
So how do you have a strong family when you’re traveling a lot?  
 
I can remember one time I was working for a company and I was with 
a guy. I noticed it had been several days and I never saw him really 
making any contact using his phone calling home. 
 
I asked him, “Have you checked in? Do they know you’re doing okay?” 
I’ll never forget this guy saying to me: “Well, it’s only three days. 
When I get back they know I’m fine. If there was something wrong 
someone would get word to them. So I don’t need to call them.” 
 
Let me tell you, that is absolute nonsense.  
 
One of the things that you’ve got to realize is, particularly when you 
have younger kids, trips must not be parentheses in their life.  
 
 
 
Here’s what I mean by that: you don’t just take off for three days. 
That’s a parenthesis. It’s like you went in a black hole and now all of 
the sudden you just appear on the other side.  
 
Let me give you three things that I did every trip when our kids were 
younger. When your kids are older you just morph it, just change it a 
little bit. Instead of using the phone, maybe send a text-message. 
You’ll get the idea if you have older kids.  
 
If you have younger kids, here are three things that we did:  
 
Number one is you over-use your phone. I don’t care what kind of 
phone you have, but it probably works. And if it does, then the minute 
that you land you call home right away. Number one, so they know 
you made it. 
 
Number two is when you get to your hotel you call home on the hotel 
phone. That way your wife or your husband—depending on who it is 
that’s traveling—will have the number. Most people have Caller ID. 
They’ve got your number at the hotel if they need it. 
 
Then at night, every night, I would call home and talk to each kid 
individually. If they were asleep, then what I did was check the time 
zone. So unless I was on a plane, I made the point every time to call 
them and contact them. 
 
I know some of you may be going, “That’s overkill. They don’t need to 
hear—are you kidding?” They do. 
 
Here’s the other thing that I would do: you know everybody has these 
really cool placemats—this one’s a Thanksgiving kind of a placemat.  
But I bought one that had all the states of the Union on it. We live in 
Phoenix, Arizona, and so I put a big star on that. Actually I had the 
kids kind of highlight that.  
Trent -2- 
 
 
 
Then every time I went on a trip I’d say, “Okay, I’m going to Michigan. 
This is where I’m going, and here’s who I’m going to be with. Here’s 
where I’m going to be in Michigan. Oh, and by the way, did you know 
Michigan had a really good football team?” or whatever the thing is, 
and I’d use that to talk to them about it.  
 
When you’re on trip they know—remember, you don’t want it to be a 
parenthesis—you want them to say, “Dad’s in Michigan and then he’s 
going to come back home. While he’s there . . .” or “He’s in Wisconsin 
and he’s going to get to see a bunch of cows.” Or I’m in Kentucky and 
I get to see a bunch of bears or something. So they’re excited. They 
know where you’re going to be and who you’re with.  
 
The last thing, real quick, is a paper sack. Here’s what you do: fill a 
paper sack for each kid, when it’s a trip longer than two days. If it’s 
only two days, use the phone. Use the placemat. Make sure they know 
where you’re at. Call at home. But if it’s longer than two days then 
what I would do is fill a bag for each kid. If you have six kids, tough! 
Do one for each kid. You had them, so you need to bless them and 
encourage them.  
 
Halfway through the trip—let’s say it was a four-day trip—on day two, 
if it was Mom or Grandma who was watching the kids, they would pull 
out that bag. That kid got to open it up and there would be a little 
treasure.  
 
I wouldn’t spend much, but I’d go at the start of a travel season to a 
big toy store and buy tons of stuff. I’d put one thing in so they have a 
treasure, and they have a personal note from Dad saying, “I love you. 
I can’t wait until I get home. It’s day—” whatever it is, day two or day 
three. “I’m with these people. Thanks for praying for me, and I’m 
praying for you.”  
 
Trent -3- 
 
 
That way it’s not a parenthesis in their life.  
 
It takes work to stay connected on the road, but you can do it.  
Trent -4- 
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