Is Travel Ruining Your Marriage?

What job-related travel reveals about a marriage.

In 1995 there were 275 million non-military business trips in the U.S. alone. It was then estimated that 1 in 5 U.S. workers traveled on business at least once a year.

The numbers seem to have done nothing but grow since. Add the numbers from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the rest of Europe and North America and you have a lot of travel putting pressure on a lot of marriages.

And for those spouses in the fields of sales, entertainment, sports, the military, international business, and the like, travel is not an occasional task; it is a way of life.

So, does all this job-related travel destroy marriages? No, say William Hendricks and Jim Cote, authors of On the Road Again: Travel, Love, and Marriage. "Travel is rarely the root problem for a marriage or family. Travel merely aggravates whatever problems are already in the home."

In other words, travel puts constant pressure on a marriage like ocean water does on a ship's hull. The water didn't create the holes, but it will definitely find them, and the ship will leak.

An important question to ask then is: What is travel revealing about my marriage? And just as important is: What can we do as a couple to fill the holes and patch the leaks?

For helpful information on the traveling life, see Traveling Spouse.