“What if we just took a little break from our everyday?”, I said. “Pack our bags and take the kids around the world?”. In fairness, this conversation with my husband, Damien, started years ago. Let’s go on a big trip! When the kids are older, when we’re not working so hard, when we have the financial means, when, when, when…
A little mid-life refresh I’m calling it. Surely, we can rephrase the ol’ mid life crisis by now? With both of us firmly in our 40s and the kids teetering out of young childhood and very much transitioning into tweens, we thought there was no better time. We are going ON A TRIP OF A LIFETIME (!!!) with our kids alongside. Are we CRAZY?! Probably, yes! Excited? Absolutely. Ready for it all? Most definitely not; but really, are we ever ready for change? I have always believed that setting about trying new things brings growth in the best possible way.
I’ve been dreaming about this adventure since I was a child. I vividly remember thinking that, when I grow up, I want to take my family to see the world. It just seemed like a super fun thing to do. Travel is, and has always been, so inspiring to me. After finishing high school, I spent a summer backpacking Europe. After university, I moved to London with one of my best friends and traveled every weekend I could, then after leaving jobs in London (where Damien and I met), we traveled through the parts of the Middle East and a few countries in Africa before settling into new jobs.
While it’s always been in the back of our minds as something we’d one day do, the opportunity and decision to go for it came quickly. We decided in June 2023 that we would take the kids out of school for the year and backpack around the world!
The summer raced by in what can only be described as a whirlwind of logistics. From how to homeschool to what to pack, where to book flights and what to take (I’ll share my list soon!), what vaccines we needed and where we’d go. We felt like nothing was ready but the leaving date was coming too soon. Isn’t that always the way? When are we ever really ready for the next thing anyway.
Why now? Well, the timing was right. The kids are growing up way too fast for my liking. I know motherhood lasts for our entire lives, but I’m always very aware that the most time we ever spend with our kids happens by the time they’re 18. I love my kids more than anything and truly think they are amazing people to hang out with. All 3 are still in elementary school and I know we want to be back and settled once they reach high school.
Covid truly brought about so many changes in our young kids’ lives. There were nearly two years where they barely went into shops or interacted with a wide variety of people. I want our kids to discover that there’s a much bigger world out there to explore; one where people live in different ways than we do, eat different foods, speak different languages.
We are incredibly aware of our privilege to take this opportunity, not only to travel but also to be such an integral part of the kids’ development. We will be doing math along the way and journaling too, with most other learning being taught in terms of classes we can enrol in along the way and experiences that naturally occur.
So, if you’re up for following along with our travel adventures, I will share along the way. And now, global adventures await!