Does your DH travel with you?

DPinHK

Registered User
Our family travels often, so I was wondering does your DH travel with you? I will probably go back home to Canada a few times a year and prefer not to bring the helper with us. So does the helper stay in your home alone? Or send the DH to stay with your friends? What does everyone else do? Thanks!
 
I want to know too. I used to think it was so strange & unnecessary to bring a DH on trips, but it seems like it would make things a lot easier to have an extra pair of hands esp. when there is more than one child.
 
I went home to Canada for the summer and yes, we brought our DH with us. I initially didn't want to but my hubby thought it would be good to have an extra pair of hands and also pointed out we would be paying her anyways, so why not have the extra help. In our situation, though I did need her since my hubby was only with us for 1 week and also couldn't fly back with us. (3yr old & 1 yr old). It was nice to have the extra help. More and more people are having helpers in Canada, I particularly noticed it when I enrolled my son in a swimming class and realized that there were alot of helpers present. So, it's not 'uncommon' as it once was to have a helper. Besides, my family and friends had also 'welcomed' the extra hand/help.

To answer the question: if you don't bring your helper, you still need to pay her salary, and if she is not staying in your house you need to provide room and board(ie at a boarding house) for the time you are away.
 
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It depends. For short-haul trips, we'd definitely consider bringing the helper along. We brought our helper with us when we went to Cebu and it was a real help. We were in Canada this summer and she stayed here. Although she stayed here, she didn't have to work and those days were counted as her part of her annual leave (she was given a choice of flying back to Phil or staying). We were staying with in-laws in Canada, so we did have help with the kids.

As to whether or not the helper stays at your place when you are away, it would depend on whether or not you trust her. You can always arrange for her to stay at a boarding house (at your expense), too, as mambo pointed out.
 
hubby and i are going to australia for a month at the end of october.

our helper is staying here, mainly because we have two dogs. she will do a "spring clean" of the house, all the things she doesn't have time to do when the house is full of people....

she's even offered to paint our downstairs (it's in dire need)!!!
she doesn't mind as she can do it in her own time.

her husband is taking his annual leave from his job in saudi arabia to come here for the time we are away. he'll be staying at our house with her. it will be the most time they've spent together since they got married 18 years ago!

if i was to go by myself to canada with the kids, i would DEFINITELY want to take my helper. it would be very difficult to even go to the bathroom on the plane with a 2 yr and a 4 yr old.... that extra pair of hands would come in very handy.

if hubby and i are going together, we would not take her.
 
Just out of interest... on the topic of whether you trust a helper to stay in your home while you are away....is that due to worry they'd invite people over or for your actual home contents?

I'm new to the helper thing so interested why it'd be an issue to leave helper in the house while on holiday (afterall they live with you and look after kids)
 
It's no issue for me to have our helper stay alone in our flat, she needs to look after the dog anyway. I wouldn't mind if she had people over occaisionally - when she babysits for us at the weekend I give her the option of inviting her friends over to watch DVDs while we are out. Sometimes, if her friends have weekdays off, they will pop over to our house during the day. They often help her around the house so I certainly don't mind that she gets the extra help and company.
 
i second exactly what leahH said. we're the exact same way with our helper. i mean, if you trust your helper to stay live with you under the same roof (and stay alone while you are out during the days) i wonder why there may be a trust issue when you are out for a few weeks...? maybe i am missing something because i have been blessed with a wonderful DH whom we trust very much. but i figure, if there is any trust issue at all, why would you still be employing her...
 
If you stay in a hotel, do you get an extra room for the helper or all stay in the same room or suite?
 
we leave our helper at home all the time. We trust her she has been with the family for 14 years, SO FAR noproblem
 
we take our helper on short breaks with us but not if we are going back home to visit family - we offer to send her back home to Philippines if she isn't coming with us but sometimes she prefers to stay in HK. in that case she stays at our place as per normal. we trust her and once again, so far no problem.

noc - when she comes with us we always get an extra room for her - although we've been tempted to put the kids in with her we haven't done it yet -next time ;-)
 
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