Dear Friend,
My family has traveled a lot in our short years together, though still much less than I would prefer.
But traveling requires “spare” time for most of us, and these days spare time is hard to come by.
Unless, of course, you live a mobile family lifestyle.
A Mobile Family Lifestyle
It always seems that the responsibilities that we so lightly assume today serve to tie us down so that we miss opportunities for a more mobile lifestyle.
It is also quite true that traveling with family, and especially with young children, adds an entirely new (and often difficult) challenge.
We’ve Been Around
In the traveling that I have done I have been honored to explore Argentina (for a month with my entire family), Costa Rica (five times; once with my oldest son), the Canadian Maritimes (for about two weeks and with the whole gang), Central and Western Canada (with the whole family via RV), most of the US (once again, via RV), Japan (for ten days when I was a teenager), the Bahamas (by sailboat as crew, and later by cruise ship with my oldest daughter), and Bermuda (for ten days for our honeymoon – no kids yet).
In all of this traveling the one thing that impacted me most was not the scenery (though some was breathtaking), or the cultural attractions (though many were fascinating), or the entertainment. The one thing that struck me most in my travels, and which I consider most significant when I discern the value of a travel visit, is the attitude of the people in the places I visit.
You Can Only Know This World Through Travel
We all know that individuals vary, and that mean people and nice people inhabit all parts of our globe. However I have found that some cultures have a built-in character that sets them apart.
Great philosophers of history often counseled that to fail to travel in life was to fail to understand the world. Some people today claim that this was a view true for a world where books were extremely rare and modern communications inconceivable. Today online tools like Twitter allow us to chat on an intimate level with folks on the other side of the planet, in real time. In fact, with the incredible power of the Web and media to inform us of the joys and sorrows around the world, physical travel seems almost an extravagant luxury.
I am a huge believer in the virtual power of the Internet and modern media. If I had not traveled as I have I would probably be among those who poo-poo the importance of physical travel. However I have traveled, and I have learned that our eyes and our brain’s frontal lobe are not the only tools that human beings utilize to sense the significance of a place, or a people.
We are creatures who have existed for for many thousands or even millions of years and who have evolved to communicate and experience the world with every sense we have. Until our technology allows unfettered, unedited access for all of our senses to anyplace we want to experience, we will need to travel with our bodies to fully understand it.
Discovering the World Through the Eyes of Others
When you travel with others, the complexities of your relationships with each of those people and between those people will color the way in which you consider what your senses tell you about a place and a people. Therefore, you can travel to the same place, and see the same people, many times, but if you bring different travel partners each time then each travel experience will be unique.
Design Your Own Mobile Family Lifestyle
My children are growing up fast. I could do as my dad had to do, and work long hours in an office Monday through Saturday and rest my tired bones on Sunday, just so I could take my family to Disney a few times. Or, I can wield every new technology I can get my hands on to design a life and a lifestyle for my family that allows us to experience as much of our world and its people as possible before my kids go off and begin to explore their own lives.
Writer Tim Ferriss calls this approach to living a “Self Directed Life.” I call it Creative Family Lifestyle Design. You can call it whatever you want.
That’s the life I live.
How about you?
I want to hear about what you are doing right now to achieve the lifestyle you want – mobile or not. And I’ll bet you would like to hear from others that you are not alone.
And don’t worry that you haven’t made much progress yet. That’s why we are all here! To kick-start that progress!
So, tell us about it! Your starts and stops. Your failures. Your dreams that you want to act on someday. Anything. Everything!
Whatever you’ve got, share it here. And let our community help guide you to your family lifestyle dreams.
All the best,
Hugh 🙂
Thank you Nicone!
It’s awesome! 🙂
We are a family that took the leap and sold home and business to travel. It is well worth it. Here is our blog http://www.trippingawake.wordpress.com
I am really glad to have found your blog and I am hoping to get some ideas about earning potential on the road as well as traveling to other countries…currently we are just doing the U.S.
😀 Right now we (with two kiddos and one on the way!) are living in a camper can. We don’t have unlimited funds, so progress is slow…but soon we hope to follow the crops and spend every minute of our kids’ childhoods teaching them and enjoying life. 😀
So far we love tiny living…I know it will be so exciting when we break free from this city and can begin making money, too! Course, most don’t agree it’s a good life for kids, but I have seen the results of (so far!) 5 months of living like this. 😀
Congrats Shara!
If you’ve been going for 5 months and you are still enthusiastic, then you have it made.
From our experience, the hardest part of living on the road is limited space. It sounds like you may have a bit of that. But reducing costs means you don’t need as many $ to live, which can take a lot of pressure off.
As far as how good all of this is for your kids – those who doubt your lifestyle are, frankly, clueless. There is nothing I am more happy about that we have done for our four kids than going on the road and living with less.
The traditional approach to raising kids is not a very good choice anymore, IMHO. Traditional schools don’t work well, and kids rarely get to experience the real world, or to discover how they fit into it. If your kids are young, it is a great time to be doing this. I know it may be uncomfortable for you being pregnant in a small space, so I congratulate you on hanging in there.
If you find that you feel cramped at times, don’t hesitate to accept a friend or relative’s offer to stay in a house for a while. I find it is good to get out of the cramped space every so often. It alleviates the closed-in feeling. So these days I no longer feel cramped at all. And don’t be shy about getting away from your family for a bit, too. Even too much of a good thing can be bad, so if somebody invites just a few of you out somewhere, go! I’ll help keep the peace at home.
It’s all about changing scenery and company on occasion to relieve any built-up pressure in your home. It does wonders!
As soon as you can, head out and try someplace new. Discover the advantage of migrating South for the Winter and North for the Summer. It’s a great experience, and there are so many cool places to see.
If you are looking for destination suggestions, just drop me a note here, and I’d be glad to share.
Thanks for posting!
Hugh 🙂
Melanie –
I noticed that you slowed down on your blog at http://trippingawake.wordpress.com/ .
This is common – I’ve done it too. It seems we just run out of new stuff to say.
But I would love to hear about where y’all are these days. If you’ve settled back down or are still wandering, it’d be great to hear your impressions and feelings after all of this time.
Hope all is well with you and yours!
Hugh
So we now have a sweet little girl in our family to join her two older brothers. 😀 We have moved into a room while we do some much-needed improvements to our van and things are going awesome….but I think I forgot how much laundry a baby makes! LOL. I love the idea of moving with the seasons and hope to do that. 😀 It’s actually funny because I would say we needed more space in the van, but when we moved the stuff into the room it actually looks like so much more because of the lack of storage. 😀
I also love your suggestions to get out and change things up, that has helped so much in our quest. It’s so funny, we are two weeks shy of a year living teeny and we have learned that we don’t need so many things, we WANT to be together, and time is our friend. 🙂 Of course all is a process but we love it! Thanks for your response!
She’s beautiful! 🙂 Congratulations!