Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Since I started sharing our bilingual journey, I’ve noticed there aren’t many working parents sharing their stories, and I’d like to fill that gap.

Take our recent OCAC trip, for example. My husband used up 2/3 of his annual paid time off so he could be well-rested to watch the kids when they got off school at noon. I, on the other hand, have much less paid time off, so I ended up working two nights during the trip. Why two nights? Well, over the past three years, whenever we’ve gone back to Taiwan, we’ve worked different lengths of time. Being on the East Coast, our working hours translate to 9 PM to 5-6 AM in Taiwan. Needless to say, our sleep schedule is always a challenge with this setup.

Last summer, when the kids were in full-day summer camps, we were able to both work for the first five days and then take two weeks off. But even with the kids in camps all day, it was hard for us to catch up on sleep during the day because we wanted to go out, grab food, and explore. The most sleep I could manage while working remotely was about 4–5 hours, or naps here and there.

That’s why I opted for two nights this time. I remembered how exhausted we were on the fourth night last year, both of us wishing this remote working situation could be over soon.

Because of this remote working setup, finding a place with multiple rooms in Taipei is crucial. In the past, we’ve stayed at an Airbnb with three bedrooms, so the kids had one room and we each had our own for conferences. Last year, we stayed at a hotel with one bedroom, one single bedroom, and a living room. I worked in the living room while my husband took the single room with the door shut because of his constant meetings.

This time, I lucked out with the relative we stayed with having a spare room for us to use. My original plan was to go sit at a convenience store like 7-11 and work there overnight. Yes, it might have a bit of background noise, but my experience going to 7-11 at night is usually very quiet. Plus, every convenience store setup is slightly different—some even have bathrooms—and, of course, there are plenty of snacks to keep me going 😆. As for internet, I’ve used two services before, iVideo and 台灣租借WiFi, to get a pocket WiFi.

I recently spoke with another dad who’s been doing remote work for the past few years. He said the most he could manage was three weeks, mainly because they have family taking care of the kids and don’t have to worry about dropping them off or picking them up.

As working parents who want to take our kids to Asia, it’s always a challenge to find the right time to take paid time off and make it work so we can enjoy the trip too, not just have the kids immerse in a Chinese environment. Our stays are short, but I make sure my kids enjoy every aspect of the trip and don’t miss out on anything.