wow! 8 years and a family of 5 in a truck camper!

[gitpicker2009]

What an education it must have been, traveling around the country!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3797620/Never-ending-vacation-California-family-five-spends-eight-years-road-traveling.html

[adamis]

I think the young age of the kids plays a huge part into the success of this family and their travels. I was a bit disappointed they didn't go into some of the more logistical aspects of how they pulled it off or even why they downsized from an Airstream to a camper. I can see how the three kids in the overhead might work but as someone else said, those dinettes are poor substitutes for a real bed for us adults. I would have gone with two kids on the dinette and one in a a bunk bed above it leaving room for the adults in the overhead first.

I think my main question (and obviously having no idea about their finances) is why THAT particular camper. I'm not super familiar with POP Ups myself, just what I have seen at the shows but my impression is they really are geared more towards the off-road or weight conscious crowds more than the always on the road traveling family crowd. Difficult to tell by the pictures but it doesn't look like this camper is large enough for a bathroom though I could be mistaken. I can totally see doing this in my own Bigfoot 10.6 camper and often suggest as much with the girlfriend but I wouldn't even consider living in a camper with young children if it didn't have a working bathroom.

Can any of you pop-up owners comment from your perspective on how you could pull this off in such a rig?

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I have run into home-schooled kids as we've traveled, and I'm amazed by how they have assimilated history into the places they've visited! But my hat's off to the parents who could endure having 3 kids in a TC for 8 months - I do NOT possess that much patience!!!

[naturist]

Fact: any scheme can be made to work well an it can also be ruined all by how it's done. Doing it well or mucking it up, choose carefully, young grasshopper.

That being the case, how's about we ease off on the criticism a bit, live and let live?

[gitpicker2009]

Folks, I'm sorry I stirred up such a hornets nest. I just thought it was a cool story and a testament to what can be done with a truck camper:)

[errante]

I don't really think that this is the point of this forum but I have to comment. I could go on for a long time but I will keep it short. Our children came home from the hospital to a sailboat and left the boat to go to college. We often spent 8-10 months, sometimes years traveling. We stopped to work periodically. While this is different than any rv there are many similarities. We homeschooled our son for 6 years. He graduated from the naval academy and now flies f18s for the navy, just made lieutenant commander. We homeschooled our daughter until her senior year of high school. Our daughter graduated magna cum laude from the university of south Florida. Both kids are working and paying their bills. They have many friends and call home regularly. Interestingly as adults both of them love to travel. When we pulled in someplace both of them made friends quickly. They knew it was often for a short time and they made the most of it. As children they learned quickly to communicate with adults and we were often complimented as people were surprised that they could speak coherently unlike many of their peers. they are more understanding of folks from other places and walks of life. They are both self sufficient. This lifestyle is obviously not for everyone and as Targusa 3 pointed out parenting is important. It takes time to raise children, but don't discount it just because this type of experience is not for every one. I would not trade the time we had with our children for anything.

[poncho62]

I think that normal is whatever suits you. My parents lived in the same house for 50 years, I have lived in my houses for 20 and now 10 years......Just recently, I have gotten the itch to wander more, so I am on here dreaming about it. Dont know if I would want to do it full time, but it does seem romantic in a way. I am sure those kids werent hurt socially by it, probably have memories they will never forget.

[djg]

My wife and I home schooled our children and we have 2 of them married 1 has a child they are normal adults with friends, the only difference is they did not have the peer pressure around them, bringing in all the **** that goes with school including the drugs and the way they teach in school that if you discipline them or spank them the school system says call the police at least up here in Canada. I think the OP has the right idea let them see the world then decide for themselves which road to take. Cudos to them for taking the road that they took I would have loved to be able to do that with mine but finances would not allow it, again great idea you parents rock.

Dave

[jimh406]

None of us knowing what it's like to live with them. Assuming that everything is great ... probably isn't completely true either. We also can't assume they are good or bad parents or loving ... we don't know.

All we know based on the article is they have been traveling in an Airstream up until recently when they started trying a popup TC. They could have stayed in one place except for the weekends.

Maybe the couple will join here and set us straight. 😉

[tragusa3]

Stability can come from other things besides your location. Two good parents that love unconditionally and discipline with that love, for starters. Hats off to them.

[Campfire_Time]

mkirsch wrote:


It's not consistent across the board, and you've only got one chance at it so you never know which path will be the right one until the one you choose goes horribly wrong. There are examples of every possible outcome, from homeschooled and outgoing to public schooled and introverted. Statistics must be employed here. It has to be graded on a bell curve. Corner cases tossed aside. What's under the "bell" is what's important.

Of course its not consistent. That's why I said there is no pat answer. And a bell curve is just a stat. It's doesn't tell the whole story. Too many factors to consider to make that kind of data truly useful. Questions like "are the families looked at close to one another?" would have to be considered. I'm willing to bet that the kids in the close families do well no matter how they were raised.

[JAC1982]

We have friends that homeschool their kids. But they're also members of home school co-ops, so they have weekly meetings with other kids of similar ages, and they also do classes with other kids through the co-ops. The friends homeschool their kids either for religious reasons, or because they live in a rural area where getting to a town to go to school is a pretty big burden. But, for these kids, they don't really get the opportunity to join a co-op or regularly interact with the same other kids that if they're traveling all the time.

As for the "memories", my guess is the younger ones won't remember a ton of what they're experiencing.

I personally wouldn't want to sleep in a convertable dinette bed for more than about 2 days, so props to mom and dad there.

[Buzzcut1]

As a kid we moved all the time. it wasn't that big a deal except for that really cool time we moved to Guadelajara Mexico. that was rad. I am a vagabond with a small circle of far flung friends. I like it that way

Those kids got the experience of a lifetime, don't sell them short on that. They will have a keener eye for life and an appreciation of the planet and it's diversity that will far outstip their so called "grounded peers"

That iMHO is priceless

[mkirsch]

..and yet the kids that I know who were home schooled are the most socially inept and awkward people I have ever met in my life.

It's not consistent across the board, and you've only got one chance at it so you never know which path will be the right one until the one you choose goes horribly wrong. There are examples of every possible outcome, from homeschooled and outgoing to public schooled and introverted. Statistics must be employed here. It has to be graded on a bell curve. Corner cases tossed aside. What's under the "bell" is what's important.

[thedavidzoo]

As a military brat all my life, and having married into the Army after that, I have moved LOTS and frequently. It gets in your blood. Really. I get antsy when we stay at one place too long (like now that we are retired but have to wait for son #1 to finish HS)...hence the frequent/long camping trips and TC to get away. I like the "what is around the next corner?" approach, always something exciting, potentially better to look forward to with a fresh start in a year or 3, not having to be stuck in a rut...

Sure, it is harder to make long term friends when you are always on the move, but I would NEVER trade my upbringing with the "normal" variety. I have seen and done things I would never have been exposed to if I grew up with the same batch of folks from public pre-school through local job market and never ventured beyond my state border.

I have seen what a limited horizon and questionable public schooling and "friends" can do to a bunch of kids/teens.

I think the kids from the article are LUCKY!