I thought I was alone when stressing out about going to the LA Textile show for 2 days and leaving my 17 month old with my husband. Glad other moms feel the same!

Yes, it is really inexpensive to get custom made clothes here. That’s actually the first thing I did when I got here. Since I got here Oct 1, which was a holiday, I took the train to Shenzhen and got some stuff made. I will pick it up Saturday or Sunday. I had 2 coats for myself ($50-70 each), a suit for my cousin ($60), 2 dresses for myself ($30) and the rest are actually (don’t laugh) product samples.

I don’t sell wholesale so I don’t need sales samples, I need press samples, which can have more variations from the finished product than a sales sample (i.e. it doesn’t need to have the right fit, a press sample can actually be the first fit sample). So what I did was go to the tailor and get them made.

Probably could have gotten it for less.

I had initially planned to subsidize my trip by getting “church lady” suits made for my mom and her friends and family, but nixed the idea. But the next time I come, I’m definitely subsidizing my trip by marking up “church lady” suits. I’m not ashamed to say it, they don’t read blogs.

Grace,

Yes, business travel is different for mothers than fathers. My mom is actually staying at my home for the week so it probably will look the same. I’m praying that I don’t come back to her imposed redecorating. Men don’t really have to think about travel. They can just go. I had to coordinate schedules, make arrangements, I typed out this six page document for my mom that included everything from directions and a map to the kids school, to the garbage collection days and procedures, to minutae like how and when to turn on the sprinklers. Dads don’t have to do that, they can just go.

Off-topic:
Do you think business travel is experienced differently by mothers and fathers?

What will your home look like when you get back?

I am a little obsessed with this topic as I am married to a man who travels 30% time; I travel 10% time and we have a young child. With a two career family, we have to run as fast as we can, all the time. If one person is gone, a backlog at home develops. It can take several weeks to work off the backlog of one parent away for one week. So, in our household, we have a perpetual backlog.
Even astronaut mothers are not immune (read the first blog entry link).
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2005/11/out-to-lunch-and-dinner-and-breakfast.html
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2006/11/business-travel-for-moms.html