Work/Life Balance
‘Staycation’ Offers Respite for Frugal Lawyer
Posted May 23, 2008, 09:24 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Want to save money on a vacation? Consider a “staycation”—a vacation in your own city or backyard.
Manhattan media lawyer Townsend Davis took a staycation earlier this year with his wife Bridget Elias, chief financial officer of the Whitney Museum, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). The couple “walked around SoHo, went to the movies or for massages, and had long lunches with wine, treats that added up to $1,000--much less than they would have spent on an out-of-town getaway,” the newspaper says.
The stay-at-home getaway, taken while their children, 5 and 2, were in school or with a sitter, led Davis and Elias to discover they need more couple time. Now they put the kids to bed earlier while they enjoy a quiet dinner.
They hope to take another staycation next year.
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Comments
Posted by associate - 3 months, 1 week, 17 hours, 45 minutes ago
Back in the day, this was called a weekend. I used to have those too.
Posted by grunt - 3 months, 1 week, 5 hours, 27 minutes ago
Again with the blogosphere and legal press’ fascination with BigLaw. (The Whitney, though nonprofit, is as far away from Legal Aid as Cravath.)
Not all of us are fortunate enough to live in Manhattan; this useless for the rest of us lawyers who don’t live within walking distance of a Michelin star restaurant.
Posted by WS - 3 months, 6 days, 22 hours, 57 minutes ago
Yes. If I had wife content to keep mouth shut I would have a staycation, too. Unfortunately, the yap would never let me live it down if I don’t cart her keester to the Bahamas every January and to the Hamptons every August. I’d love to relax at home--I dont see much of my home from 9:30 pm to 7:00 am when I’m there. If I had it to do over again, I’d never have married the wife. My wife is also a lawyer, if you couldn’t figure that out. No one but a lawyer has a yap like her. I dare not put down my full name, lest that shrew figure it out; but there are over 100 of my collegues at the firm alone in exactly the same boat.
Posted by Bill G - 3 months, 6 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes ago
My condolences, WS. You need a breakSounds like you have your hands full and need some “work-life” balance. Too bad the profession has not yet come to the point where the male lawyers can get some of that “work life balance” that has become so stylish. How could you possibly do both work and keep the home-life peaceful. IDEA: You say your wife is a lawyer...why don’t you tell her to work so that you can sit at home and then just yap at her?
Posted by Mary - 3 months, 6 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes ago
Hey, WS, have you ever actually sat down with “that shrew” whom you married and (gasp!) talked?
My husband and I both work hard to pay high school and college tuition for our teenagers. (He’s a municipal employee; I’m the attorney.) I would LOVE to give the kids $100 and tell them to go to a movie and a restaurant and not come home until dark. And then we wouldn’t need to go anywhere. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.