Am I Just Naive
I caught the traveling bug years ago while moving halfway across country by car. I have since traveled by bus, by car and by train half way across the country several times and really enjoyed it. I ...
Forum Discussion
We fulltime with kids (of all ages ;) ), and none of us want it any other way.
We blog about our travels; we are the fulltime family #2 link above, and personally know the other 2 families (met on the road). We stuck around FL much longer than intended this winter just to hang out with them (and a few others with big kids otr).
From my experience, I would suggest:
It is so important that both you and hubby are on board with this decision - yes, you are 'living' in an rv, but if you are moving around, it can be much different than a house.
Socialization - kids that small do not need 'long-term friends'. They will meet all sorts of kids in RV parks, and RVers tend to make friends faster than s&b because we realize that we have a very limited time to meet before one or the other moves on. They will have kids their ages to play with now and again, but the 'long-term friends' isn't a big deal until at least tweens, unless they have been conditioned differently by you or public school. My little girls (7,5,3) just left 'forever friends' a few hours ago, but they know that they will see them again, and they are excited about where we are heading to instead of moping. Attitudes are catching - if you pity them for having to 'see you later', they will feel bad, but if your fam is #1, and you make the journey fun, they will love it (isn't that true no matter where you live?)
$ - We are debt free, but we spend $1k a week to stay on the road. Our biggest expenses are fuel and food (there are 12 of us, and we drive 2 gas guzzlers). We COULD pare that down, but it would mean changing our lifestyle. We live in an RV so we can TRAVEL, so we move a lot. We seldom pay much in site fees as we Walmart when we are moving fast, and we have a campround membership - we also choose less expensive places to stay like COE, Fed campgrounds, and state parks. We would prob not choose this if we had to pinch pennies too badly.
Kids attitude - we've only been on the road for 3.5 years. My bigs (we have all odd ages from 1 to 19 traveling with us), are some of the biggest proponents. Every once in awhile, someone will say they are ready for a house. We are truly open to that. When it comes down to stopping tho, no-one wants to. My 19 y.o. mentioned today that he would like to travel with us again next year.
~all that being said, we are a little different than most traveling families. We do not have a job that we do on the road - we return to our hometown every summer to work, so our kids come back to their same friends and activities. It may be only for a few months, but they (and us) do have our BFFs there. Anyone could still create a 'homebase' by simply parking in the same area for a few months each year.
If this is your dream, go for it (if hubby is really on-board). We have never met anyone that said, 'gee, I wish that I wouldn't have followed my dreams', but we have met dozens that have said, 'I wish we would have started earlier' or 'I wish we could (or would) have shown our kids the country'.
:)
Dana Ticknor
http://ticknortribe.com/
We blog about our travels; we are the fulltime family #2 link above, and personally know the other 2 families (met on the road). We stuck around FL much longer than intended this winter just to hang out with them (and a few others with big kids otr).
From my experience, I would suggest:
It is so important that both you and hubby are on board with this decision - yes, you are 'living' in an rv, but if you are moving around, it can be much different than a house.
Socialization - kids that small do not need 'long-term friends'. They will meet all sorts of kids in RV parks, and RVers tend to make friends faster than s&b because we realize that we have a very limited time to meet before one or the other moves on. They will have kids their ages to play with now and again, but the 'long-term friends' isn't a big deal until at least tweens, unless they have been conditioned differently by you or public school. My little girls (7,5,3) just left 'forever friends' a few hours ago, but they know that they will see them again, and they are excited about where we are heading to instead of moping. Attitudes are catching - if you pity them for having to 'see you later', they will feel bad, but if your fam is #1, and you make the journey fun, they will love it (isn't that true no matter where you live?)
$ - We are debt free, but we spend $1k a week to stay on the road. Our biggest expenses are fuel and food (there are 12 of us, and we drive 2 gas guzzlers). We COULD pare that down, but it would mean changing our lifestyle. We live in an RV so we can TRAVEL, so we move a lot. We seldom pay much in site fees as we Walmart when we are moving fast, and we have a campround membership - we also choose less expensive places to stay like COE, Fed campgrounds, and state parks. We would prob not choose this if we had to pinch pennies too badly.
Kids attitude - we've only been on the road for 3.5 years. My bigs (we have all odd ages from 1 to 19 traveling with us), are some of the biggest proponents. Every once in awhile, someone will say they are ready for a house. We are truly open to that. When it comes down to stopping tho, no-one wants to. My 19 y.o. mentioned today that he would like to travel with us again next year.
~all that being said, we are a little different than most traveling families. We do not have a job that we do on the road - we return to our hometown every summer to work, so our kids come back to their same friends and activities. It may be only for a few months, but they (and us) do have our BFFs there. Anyone could still create a 'homebase' by simply parking in the same area for a few months each year.
If this is your dream, go for it (if hubby is really on-board). We have never met anyone that said, 'gee, I wish that I wouldn't have followed my dreams', but we have met dozens that have said, 'I wish we would have started earlier' or 'I wish we could (or would) have shown our kids the country'.
:)
Dana Ticknor
http://ticknortribe.com/
