In 2008, I quit my corporate job, sold off everything I owned and moved overseas with my husband Drew. Since then we've traveled around the world, started our careers over as creative types and nurtured our love of sleeping in late. Oh and we had a baby. Cole, our almost 2 year old has been traveling since he was four months old and probably knows more Thai than me (not that he brags).
What a Nomadic Lifestyle Looks Like for my Family
Today’s guest post is from Dee at Travel and Travails. I’m always talking about how full-time travel is possible for anyone. Sometimes, that’s just not the case. An overlooked side of family travel… I’m curious to hear your comments.
I follow Christine and Almost Fearless with some jealousy. I envy the idea of being location independent and a digital nomad… I’d like to make it a lifestyle; I know my husband would love to; it’s my two daughters who hold me back. They are 8 and 11.
Our Experiment as a Nomadic Family
Two years ago, we sold our house and cars, stored furniture, gave away toys and 15-year-old wedding gifts we still weren’t using, and decided to move our family to Spain for a year. We were looking for something new and different in life than the usual commute to work, pay the mortgage, mow the yard, go to the movies. The idea was to travel but to also have a home base. My husband was going to work remotely; I would be a freelance writer. Location independence!
We traveled throughout Spain for the first three months, spending 2-3 weeks in different cities, renting houses and apartments and living the life of digital nomads. After three months of life on the road though, we were all ready to settle, find a place to call home, unpack books and stuffed animals, make friends, and start school.
Ah, yes, school. The biggest challenge our family faces in our quest for location independence. It’s not purely about the academics. There are plenty of great home-schooling, road-schooling, un-schooling resources and online courses. And the things learned on the road… experiencing other cultures, walking through history, trying new things… are priceless and something that a classroom can never bring to life. But school is also about friends and the socialization kids want and need. After three months of traveling and only each other, our daughters wanted friends. They craved other kids. And real teachers, a lunch room, recess and the routines of school. And my husband and I craved time… for work, to take Spanish lessons, to exercise and make friends of our own.
What we discovered though is it didn’t take long for routine to creep back into our lives, even in a foreign country. We were no longer mobile, able to pick up and go. We were tied down to homework, school plays, after school soccer practice.
But we adults were restless. It was the middle of an unexpected wet and cold Mediterranean winter, we weren’t immersed and learning Spanish like we had thought we would be, and we discovered we had settled back into the routines of life we were trying to shake. The freedom we had experienced traveling was gone.
Time to hit the road again. We gave notice at school, were able to get out of the long-term lease on our house, and started planning to be nomads again in the spring. Renting apartments, preparing to homeschool, getting excited to travel again. At least we were. Our daughters, however, were not. They didn’t want to leave our new town anymore than they’d wanted to move to Spain in the first place. They’d finally made friends, they liked their school, they were learning Spanish. It was starting to feel like home, and here Mom and Dad were mixing it all up again.
Even so, and many emotional conversations later, we were off again with the intention of traveling for another three months before returning home to Colorado, just in time for… you guessed it, school!
What We Will Try in the Future
Whether we like it or not, some amount of routine and school for our family is a reality. We have tried our hand at homeschooling, but the novelty soon wears off for our daughters and us. And at their ages, they want consistent friendships and soccer practice and Girl Scouts. And we want some of those things for them too.
We have decided nomadic summers are in our future. No school to concern ourselves with, no schedules, and no travel fatigue setting in, when you could care less if you see another museum or castle and just want to curl up on the couch with a movie, no matter how old you are.
We are hopeful that 6-8 weeks of vagabonding and working remotely will meet the nomadic needs of the four of us. Perhaps I have to accept that for now nomadic for my family means being free to wander and travel once the bell rings and school is out.
What about you? What does a nomadic lifestyle look like for your family?
About the author
Dee Andrews and her family recently returned to Boulder, Colorado after experiencing life as nomads for a year. You can read about her family’s experiences moving and living abroad, traveling throughout the Mediterranean, and embracing change at Travel and Travails. Dee hopes to convince her tween children to embrace a nomadic lifestyle again, ideally in South America. Dee can be reached at dee@travelandtravails.com.