BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi everyone

I'm new to the site and have been reading the posts with much interest. Now, I hope you guys can give me some thoughts on my situation.

My husband and I have travelled a fair bit in the past and have also lived in the Caribbean for two years where we were both working.
We moved back to the UK in the beginning of the year and although we are really happy to be back, my husband has just been made redundant and I don't enjoy my job. We have also sold a property and now have our own home mortgage-free and some money in the bank. So to me this sounds like an excellent time in life to go and take a long family trip.

But now the downsides, our two girls are only 18 months and 3-years old. A bit young for travelling. Also, my husband isn't convinced this is a good way to spend our money and we've just come back. Although he loves the idea of travelling he wants to be sensible. He also says that we will have to come back one day and start 'real' life again.

Personally, I think it is time to re-evaluate our (working) life and time spent as a family together can only be a good thing.

What do you guys think? Stay or go?

Your thoughts are very much appreciated!

Hi,
speaking as a family who is planning a rtw trip with 3 children in about 2.5 years time (they'll be 4, 6, 8) I'd say go! It's not often that things come together to allow you to do take off like this. I also think that spending a long period of time without the usual distractions of day to day life will be great for our family.

However, I do think it's important that your husband is keen aswell. My husband is as keen as me, but we still have our times when we think we must be mad and one of us gees the other up. I think it would cause tension if one of you was really keen and the other not so much.

Of course you will have to start 'real' life eventually, but who's to dictate what that should involve? My parents aren't too keen on our trip because they are worried about our eldest's education etc, but at the end of the day, we've decided it's our family and we'll run it our way.

Good luck!

As much as I want to say "GO!!!", I also understand that it would be very difficult to do without the support and total enthusiasm of your husband.

We are taking off Sunday for a 2 1/2 year bicycle journey from Alaska to Argentina with our kids, and we're both very excited about it. That being said, there are a lot of things that will be difficult because of this.

We also own our house outright, so are able to rent it out and use the money for our living expenses on the road. I doubt we would be doing this if it wasn't for that.

We know that things will have to change someday, but we aren't sure how that will look. Both of us are long-time teachers, and we both want to get out of teaching. We're kind of hoping this journey will lead to some other opportunity, although I can't even begin to fathom what they might be.

So - just know that other families are doing it. It's not something untried and new. I really do hope you go - it's such a magical experience to live through together as a family!

In under four months we will be taking our family away from their current suburban life to a new life. They will be aged from 2 to 14 when we leave. See, Nancy is right - there are others doing just-as-strange things.
Maybe it would be a good time to chat with your husband about what *real life* looks like.
We are hoping that the real life we experience on our trip will change the rest of our real life - just as the experiences of our newly-wed days of travel have influenced our life thus far.
I'd encourage you to go, but only as a complete family unit.