July 21, 2022 • 5 mins
As more companies are resuming normal operations, work conferences are also making a comeback and these professional gatherings are acting as mini vacations for parents who spent the pandemic taking care of their kids while they were out of school. Alina Dizik, contributor to the WSJ, joins us for how parents are escaping their families by going on work trips.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Thursday, July one. I'm oscar Room Mirrors from the
Daily Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
As more companies are resuming normal operations, work conferences are
also making a comeback, and these professional gatherings are acting
as many vacations for parents who spent the pandemic taking
care of the kids while they were out of school.
(00:21):
Elena Disick, contributor to The Wall Street Journal, joins us
for how parents are escaping their families by going on
work trips. Thanks for joining, Selena, Thanks for having me. Well,
let's talk about this kind of fun article you wrote
up about as parents are starting to go back to
work conferences. You know, everybody had a tough go throughout
the pandemic. Parents obviously in a particularly precarious situation with
(00:44):
schools shutting down. A lot of them had to take
care of their children and all that, and you know,
there's a lot of burnout that was going on. But
now as things are starting to ramp up back at
work conferences, work conferences are starting to happen again, and
some of these parents are using these as many vacations
to they're relishing in the time away from their families.
So it's a pretty funny look at what's going on.
(01:04):
So Elena, help us walk through some of this. What
are we seeing? Yeah, so some of the parents are deciding,
you know, if they do need to go to a conference,
they'll at least get some fun out of it. So
they're arriving early a day early, or leaving a date late,
and planning some tourist activities. One person went to the
movies because she hasn't been able to make it to
(01:27):
the movies, or dinners with local friends. So there's a
lot of things that they're kind of adding on to
the work part of the conference. Now. One of the
funny things that with reading through all the is I
was feeling bad for the partners, the spouses of the
actual parent that was going to the conference, because it's like, yeah,
I'm gonna be gone for ten days, and then it's
(01:47):
like her husband had to stay home with the three kids.
It's like they're the lopside. And this was kind of
funny to me. The parents staying home. Definitely some of
them probably would have wanted to which places, but for
the most part, I think they were kind of happy
for the other person to resume conferences and you know,
(02:08):
not too resentful. And then even at these conferences themselves,
the people that are putting these on are really going
all out for their attendees, providing massages. Uh there was
one there was a chance to pet dogs in an
event that they were calling Papa Palooza. So I mean
even for the companies themselves, the people that put on
these events, they're really making it you know, fun and
(02:31):
relaxing and enjoyable for these people that are having to
attend anyways. Definitely, they really want to make sure that
people truly want to go and attend in person, especially
because there's so many virtual conferences and you can attend them,
too many options to attend virtually. They want to make
the in person ones as fun as possible. Some of
(02:52):
these conferences are also happening across the world. There was
one in Rome, there's one in Amsterdam. These are all
just from people that you were speaking to that were
there were attending these, so nice to see that they're
getting getting they're getting out to some pretty interesting places
at least if they're goind of kind of make it
that little mini vacation. Tell me some of the conversations
that you had with people and how they're approaching it,
what they're getting out of it. Well, I think the
(03:14):
conversation often centers, especially for parents, it often centers around
you know, should I leave my children? And I think
the people that I spoke to after they kind of
get rid of any potential guilt of leaving their children.
You know, once they land in a particular place, they're
pretty excited to be there and they really want to
make the most of it. So I think essentially it's
(03:37):
it's all about kind of letting go of the guilt
in the beginning and then enjoying your time. Right. Yeah,
there was one parent that you spoke to that had
a particularly funny story. He wanted to go ride one
of these pretty amazing carousels. I guess that in Spokane, Washington.
It's a famous carousel out there and their hand carved
horses and whatnot. And he's like, I had to go
ride this thing. I'm sorry I left my three year
(03:58):
old kid at home, but and I guess there was
a bunch of other children on that carousel at the time,
but he's like, I had to go do it, you know,
you have to go have that fun with it. Totally, totally.
He's one of the main tourist attractions and he really
wanted to ride this carousel and so he kind of
made it work and I think he had a blast. Well, yeah,
(04:19):
just a fun look. For now, as these things start
ramping up in the business world, that kind of the
conferences are back. But for those parents that nobody was
really doing anything for these last few years of the pandemic,
we're starting to see travel tick up all this and
they're using these work conferences as opportunities to have a
little bit of fun and get away from the family.
So we'll keep an eye out for all of that.
Elena Disik, contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Thank you
(04:41):
very much for joining us. Thank you for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramrrors and this has been reopening America. Don't
forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check
me out on the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday,
So follow us and I Heart Radio or wherever you
get your podcast. Bad Fa
It's Thursday, July one. I'm oscar Room Mirrors from the
Daily Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
As more companies are resuming normal operations, work conferences are
also making a comeback, and these professional gatherings are acting
as many vacations for parents who spent the pandemic taking
care of the kids while they were out of school.
(00:21):
Elena Disick, contributor to The Wall Street Journal, joins us
for how parents are escaping their families by going on
work trips. Thanks for joining, Selena, Thanks for having me. Well,
let's talk about this kind of fun article you wrote
up about as parents are starting to go back to
work conferences. You know, everybody had a tough go throughout
the pandemic. Parents obviously in a particularly precarious situation with
(00:44):
schools shutting down. A lot of them had to take
care of their children and all that, and you know,
there's a lot of burnout that was going on. But
now as things are starting to ramp up back at
work conferences, work conferences are starting to happen again, and
some of these parents are using these as many vacations
to they're relishing in the time away from their families.
So it's a pretty funny look at what's going on.
(01:04):
So Elena, help us walk through some of this. What
are we seeing? Yeah, so some of the parents are deciding,
you know, if they do need to go to a conference,
they'll at least get some fun out of it. So
they're arriving early a day early, or leaving a date late,
and planning some tourist activities. One person went to the
movies because she hasn't been able to make it to
(01:27):
the movies, or dinners with local friends. So there's a
lot of things that they're kind of adding on to
the work part of the conference. Now. One of the
funny things that with reading through all the is I
was feeling bad for the partners, the spouses of the
actual parent that was going to the conference, because it's like, yeah,
I'm gonna be gone for ten days, and then it's
(01:47):
like her husband had to stay home with the three kids.
It's like they're the lopside. And this was kind of
funny to me. The parents staying home. Definitely some of
them probably would have wanted to which places, but for
the most part, I think they were kind of happy
for the other person to resume conferences and you know,
(02:08):
not too resentful. And then even at these conferences themselves,
the people that are putting these on are really going
all out for their attendees, providing massages. Uh there was
one there was a chance to pet dogs in an
event that they were calling Papa Palooza. So I mean
even for the companies themselves, the people that put on
these events, they're really making it you know, fun and
(02:31):
relaxing and enjoyable for these people that are having to
attend anyways. Definitely, they really want to make sure that
people truly want to go and attend in person, especially
because there's so many virtual conferences and you can attend them,
too many options to attend virtually. They want to make
the in person ones as fun as possible. Some of
(02:52):
these conferences are also happening across the world. There was
one in Rome, there's one in Amsterdam. These are all
just from people that you were speaking to that were
there were attending these, so nice to see that they're
getting getting they're getting out to some pretty interesting places
at least if they're goind of kind of make it
that little mini vacation. Tell me some of the conversations
that you had with people and how they're approaching it,
what they're getting out of it. Well, I think the
(03:14):
conversation often centers, especially for parents, it often centers around
you know, should I leave my children? And I think
the people that I spoke to after they kind of
get rid of any potential guilt of leaving their children.
You know, once they land in a particular place, they're
pretty excited to be there and they really want to
make the most of it. So I think essentially it's
(03:37):
it's all about kind of letting go of the guilt
in the beginning and then enjoying your time. Right. Yeah,
there was one parent that you spoke to that had
a particularly funny story. He wanted to go ride one
of these pretty amazing carousels. I guess that in Spokane, Washington.
It's a famous carousel out there and their hand carved
horses and whatnot. And he's like, I had to go
ride this thing. I'm sorry I left my three year
(03:58):
old kid at home, but and I guess there was
a bunch of other children on that carousel at the time,
but he's like, I had to go do it, you know,
you have to go have that fun with it. Totally, totally.
He's one of the main tourist attractions and he really
wanted to ride this carousel and so he kind of
made it work and I think he had a blast. Well, yeah,
(04:19):
just a fun look. For now, as these things start
ramping up in the business world, that kind of the
conferences are back. But for those parents that nobody was
really doing anything for these last few years of the pandemic,
we're starting to see travel tick up all this and
they're using these work conferences as opportunities to have a
little bit of fun and get away from the family.
So we'll keep an eye out for all of that.
Elena Disik, contributor to The Wall Street Journal. Thank you
(04:41):
very much for joining us. Thank you for having me.
I'm Oscar Ramrrors and this has been reopening America. Don't
forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check
me out on the Daily Dive podcast every money through Friday,
So follow us and I Heart Radio or wherever you
get your podcast. Bad Fa
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