I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane. My Kids Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again.

This week I'm heading to Toronto for the world's largest mining conference. PDAC. 

For most people in capital markets, it's a big week. Deals get discussed, capital gets allocated, and new relationships get built.

At home, it's a little less glamorous.

My kids just know I won't be there for bedtime.

They couldn't care less about commodity cycles or jurisdictional risk. All they care about is who reads them their bedtime story and turns off the light for the night.

Travel for work is part of the territory. But it's not the travel that makes it tough. It's the guilt that comes along with it.

And guilt, I've learned, doesn't have a great ROI.

Overcompensating before you leave doesn't help anyone. Calm goodbyes do more than a dramatic one ever will.

For me, I keep it simple. "Daddy will be back in two sleeps."

I repeat it to the point I almost annoy myself. But it helps them because predictability reduces anxiety for kids and, honestly, for me too.

I try to keep things consistent. Same goodbye hug. Same phrase. A quick FaceTime at roughly the same time each night if I can swing it.

At PDAC, the conversations will be about billion-dollar projects, feasibility studies, and risk models.

At home, the crisis might be the wrong color cup at dinner.

They're on different sides of the spectrum but both require me to show up steady. You can't control the markets or your kids' reactions, but you can control how steady you walk into both.