Considering a Trucking Career? How Drivers Stay in Touch With Their Kids

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the median truck driver pay as over $43,000 per year, making this job good for workers with families to support. If you're considering this profitable career but are concerned about time spent away from your kids, take a look at the easy ways over-the-road truckers can keep in touch with their loved ones.

Long gone are the days when phones made just voice-to-voice calls. A smartphone makes communicating with your family easier — and better too. Your smartphone can:

• Travel with you. It doesn't matter whether you're five miles from home or 500, you can just as easily talk to your children.
• Video chat. Looking at your child's face can brighten your whole day. Not only can video chat help you to do this, but also makes it possible for you to watch your child's piano recital or help them with their homework.
• Text. Send a quick note to your child anytime 24-7 with a text. If you're in a different time zone or work late/early, your child can see the message when they wake up.

If your child is too young to have their own phone, or they aren't allowed to have one, call, video chat, or text them via your spouse's or another family member's smartphone.

Whether you use Facebook, Instagram, or another social media platform, these sites/apps make it easy to keep in contact with anyone who is far away. Social media is perfect for the trucker parent who wants to communicate with multiple children but doesn't have the time to make several equal-length phone calls.

Social media allows the over the road truck driver with a family to:

• Post pictures. Show your children the places you travel to with daily photo updates.
• View pictures. You can see what your child is doing by viewing photos of their daily activities or special events.
• Comment. Add comments and interact with your child via your, or their, posts.
• Message. Send a text-like message or create a family group to use through a social media messaging app.

Children often require monitoring when using any form of social media. Again, if your child is too young to use this option on their own, have a spouse or other adult family member help.

Even though the internet is often the main means of communication, sometimes an email just doesn't get the message through. While snail mail can take time to get from point A to point B (wherever you are to your child's home), it can also:

• Show your child where you are. A photo postcard is the perfect snapshot of your current location.
• Provide a lasting memory. Your child can save the postcards and letters, creating a memory box that's filled with your travels.
• Say something special. A handwritten letter takes your message to a new level, elevating just how special this parent-child communication is.

Constant traveling means your child likely can't send postcards or letters back to you. Instead of putting what they write in the mail, your spouse or family member can save your child's written notes and cards for your return home.

While your child can't send you letters (or packages) when you're on the road, that doesn't mean you can't, or shouldn't, send care packages to your child. If you're not sure what to send, consider:

• Local picks. Choose a variety of local products, creating a gift basket from each city or state you visit.
• T-shirts. Select a shirt from each place you visit (or every few places) to send back to your child.
• Activities and interests. Show your child how much you appreciate what they do every day. Send a sports, art, or other activity or interest package home from wherever you travel to.

You don't need to wait for a birthday, holiday, or other special occasion to send a package home. Your child will appreciate the surprise of a gift arriving on their doorstep any day of the week.

Are you ready to begin your driving career? Contact Commercial Trucking School for more information.