AMA (Ask Me Anything) about fulltiming as a family

[ependydad]

This is a thing on Reddit, an "AMA" or an "Ask Me Anything" kind of post. Not sure how it'll go here, but since I know that most folks who fulltime are older/retired, I thought I'd offer the perspective of a working 30-something with a wife and 2 kids (daughter, 15; and son, 6). We have fulltimed for 3 1/2 years now.



We initially set off on a 1-year (14-month) trip that I have carefully choreographed to be in decent weather all year round and make 2 concise loops around the US hitting each state and 1-2 high-points in each.

By week 5, stop 4, we broke our plan when my wife hurt her back and we couldn't travel one day. Our travels continued to derail from the original plan quickly- especially with the decision to attend a rally of other fulltime families.

By the end of month 3, we hated everything about fulltime life.

The rally of other fulltime families that turned things around for us.

By month 5, we knew we wanted to take the end date off of the table and continue.

2 years in, we sold our house.

3 years in, we sold all of our belongings.

And here we are- 3 1/2 years in and I'm offering up an AMA.



Helpful? No?

[ependydad]

(bump)

[ependydad]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Kudos to you and your family for taking the leap.

Being younger and having 2 kids seems like it would be quite the challenge.
Schooling, social INTERACTION/Face to face etc, all have to be a bit of a chore to maintain high quality
I grew up 'moving' from place to place due to Dads job. Went to 3 elementary, 2 Jr High and 2 High Schools in 4 different towns.
Always the new kid.
So I have my bias towards homeschooling .....but ???
Hopefully it works for your kids

Thanks for the kind words.

You touched on the 2 biggest concerns I had going into fulltiming with kids:

1) Homeschooling & being responsible for their education.

For homeschooling, we initially contacted a "homeschool consultant" to help guide us in what was needed, how to even approach the concept of their education, and to start framing education opportunities around the stops we had initially planned out. Through a weird set of events, we only had her help us for the first couple of months and stops. However, now that we have a couple of years under our belts, I fully feel confident of saying that my daughter will be college ready in a couple of years. And for my son, feel he's well taught beyond his 1st grade counterparts.


2) Homeschooling and living a different lifestyle and socialization for the them.

For the socialization side of things, we started off pretty alone but hooked up with an organization called Fulltime Families. We spent the first 2 years chasing rallies around (40-80 families at each) and making friends. It's now not surprising to pull into just about anywhere and find that there are other fulltime families that we already know. Plus, we have made connections where we'll travel on and off with families.

I will say, her friendships with kids who also travel have been deeper and more meaningful than what she had when she had friends by proximity (house + school). I think it's because other friends who travel know that it takes work to keep a relationship. Plus, we've been able to be more selective as to who is and who isn't a friend.

[Old-Biscuit]

Kudos to you and your family for taking the leap.

We FTd for 7 yrs before we had to come back off the road.
But it was just the 2 of us and a large dog....retired/debt free and no ties

Being younger and having 2 kids seems like it would be quite the challenge.
Schooling, social INTERACTION/Face to face etc, all have to be a bit of a chore to maintain high quality
I grew up 'moving' from place to place due to Dads job. Went to 3 elementary, 2 Jr High and 2 High Schools in 4 different towns.
Always the new kid.
So I have my bias towards homeschooling .....but ???
Hopefully it works for your kids


Plus Income and Retirement/Investments

My income and investments allowed us to retire at 50 and do things we wouldn't have been able while working for a living.

Best wishes....

AMA.....should be a good thing especially the incite from a family point of view