When it comes to driving directions, stereo equipment and fixing the car, dads need few instructions. When it comes to taking care of the kids while mom is out of town, however, some dads need a little more direction.

"As long as my husband has instructions and I leave him a list with meals already prepared, he does fine," says Maria Bailey, a working mother of four. As a mom who travels once a week for business, and has done so since before her children were born, Bailey does her best to keep things running smoothly at home while she is away.

"When I am preparing to go out of town, I make all of my kids' lunches for each day that I am gone," she says, laughing. "If I am going to be gone for four days I have to make 16 bags of lunches and write who gets which bag and the day it should be eaten." Even now, with their children ages 4, 7, 9 and 10, Bailey's husband still relies on her lists.

Bailey says the most important thing that makes her situation work is flexibility. "It helps that my kids understand that when mom is gone the schedule has to be more flexible and we can't do what we normally do," she says. But now she admits it's much harder to be away than when her children were younger. "When they are infants they are in one place," she says. "Now that they are older it is more difficult. They have activities and school and a whole bunch of things, and that is overwhelming to a dad who is not used to doing everything on his own."

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