The 'Bring Your Own Mom' Business Trip

Travelling for work is annoying because it means you don't get to go home to your personal life at the end of the day.  OK, it can break up the monotony of your usual office routine, and you might get to see a few new cities, but it tips the delicate work-life balance in entirely the wrong direction.  As a frequent business traveller, I have often thought how great it would be if I could bring along a loved one in order to counter-balance this.  It's tough to invite my boyfriend or my friends along, because they have jobs of their own to attend to, and are strangely reluctant to take time off in order to wait around all day for me to finish work so that we can hit the town.  Luckily for me, I do have one such faithful companion, which lead me to an interesting idea:  The Bring Your Own Mom Business Trip!

The best business trip breakfast companion- My mother.

I know this might seem inappropriate.  What's she going to do all day while you are in back to back meetings?  Won't you feel guilty in the evening if you have to take a client for a drink?  What if she hangs around the hotel lobby introducing herself to your colleagues (awkward)?  Admittedly, this works best when your business destination city has more to offer than a sheet metal factory tour and the hotel bar of the local Radisson.  It is necessary to exercise some discretion here.  Fortunately, my business trip last week took me to Paris, the ideal BYOM work destination.

Work travel means corporate rates and free upgrades, so you can treat your mother to some well deserved luxury to make up for all those times you behaved like a mental person when you were younger (or last week).   There are many luxurious hotels in interesting cities that will do the trick, but you really can't go wrong with the Four Seasons George V in Paris.  Here are some reasons why:

• Mothers appreciate fluffy towels more than the average human, and this is what your bathroom/ vanity area looks like:

• Louis XIV antiques are to your mother what the X Box and Lay Z Boy are your boyfriend:

• While Paris with your friends is more about the clubs and the night life, with your mother you will appreciate all Paris has to offer by day, providing essential nourishment for the culturally anorexic:

Strange balloon man hanging out the window of the Louvre

Montmartre

I highly recommend the BYOM business trip.  Work trips and bonding with your mom don't seem like an obvious combination, and yet this works on many levels.  She will be so flattered you invited her along, she'll feel like she is sharing a part of your life that is usually kept entirely separate from her, and she's waaaaaay better company than Dan from Accounting.