Mars vs. Venus when Preparing for Business Travel

As I go through my Sunday ritual getting ready for tomorrow’s business trip, I wonder how a woman’s preparations for business travel differ from a man’s.

Typical ‘She’ tasks:

• Get all laundry done, clean up the house
• Make home cooked meals for the family, ensure plenty of food is available
• Throw away old food from the refrigerator (because we made too much food before the last trip that they didn’t eat!)
• Go through all mail and pay bills due in the upcoming days (pack a few magazines in laptop tote for reading on the plane)
• Get kids clothes put together for the week; go through school bags, homework, projects, etc.
• Polish nails
• Make a list for dad or the caregiver of the 1001 things to do and know while mom is away
• Try on various (ok, numerous!) outfits to determine what to pack (can’t pack the same thing two weeks in a row!); pack
• Pack ‘bag of guilt’ that stays with us the entire trip

Typical ‘He’ tasks:

• Cut lawn and do yardwork
• Pack

The ‘he’ task list must be missing some items, so please add them below.

I remember the days when growing up as we were getting ready for vacation. My mom had to get all seven of us kids packed, cooler filled and the house taken care of. My dad packed his clothes and his tackle box and then waited out in the car while my mom did all the rest. Times were obviously different then but I’m still surprised she never clobbered him over the head with his fishing pole.