To consider selling our house and travelling the world with two toddlers?

We aren’t running from anything; we are just bored of the UK!

Reread your own op

Do it but rent your house instead of selling.

Also don't kid yourself - they won't pick up any meaningful amount of a foreign language unless you stay somewhere a while and are properly immersed, for example if they go to a local nursery somewhere for a few months.

Its very different travelling for that length of time compared to a 2 or 3 week holiday. It can be hard/stressful for a young toddler to be so rootless, to not have the opportunity to bonding with adults in their wider family/community, and to be moved on from a place just as it starts feeling familiar. Some children will cope with this well, some may find it traumatic and that can have long term effects.

your kids won't remember this at all later on.

@travellingwithtoddlers I've just found this post and see it was started in April. I'm curious did you go travelling. I really hope you did and hope you are having an amazing time

I have enjoyed lots of travelling, but my job allowed me a maximum of a month off at a time.
I have been to some amazing places.

It has not cured my love of travelling ! ! !
I still love to travel

Why don't you go for a month first to Vietnam or Malaysia & try with your children ?

@ChiefEverythingOfficer and now you’re the CEO of a tech company? 🤨

Agree with your sentiment but it does sound as though you need to research places a bit more.

Re language: if they pick up other languages it will actually help them with their development and language acquisition long term= loads of studies evidence this.

The only thing that sounds unwise is you selling the house.

Travelling: great idea
Selling your house: probably the worst thing you can do.

Just rent it out.

In theory, awesome!! And I'm envious, but the kids will barely remember it. We lived in Kenya when DD was 3.....had some amazing experiences.... She remembers nothing.

@Buffs Thanks for your honest answers. It sounds like they really benefited from it and you also got to do cool things that the Great Wall of China that they may end up remembering. That's good to know about the friendship groups still being ok when they came back.

@GuyOnAMotorcycle I don't think it's possible to cause a child's autism in this way, I wouldn't worry about that (though I'm not an expert). It sounds like you really gave your kid a great experience.

A lot to think about.

I am truly inspired by many of the people on this thread.

OP do it. Live your dream. We only get one life.

I have no experience, no advice.
But I think it sounds brave and exciting!
And I think selling up before you go is a great idea. Cut ties, no money worries, no legal responsibility to maintain a property from the other side of the world.
You might love it and travel for a lot longer. You might find your new family forever home in SE Asia.
And whenever you come back, IF you come back, the kids would just walk straight into school and be just fine. It sounds so cool to introduce them to new places and people and cultures. Of course it will have a positive impact on their development, even if it’s just a year or two and they don’t have any concrete memories later. Good luck!

Have you watched the Bucket List Family vlogs on YouTube? They've got a lot of money and have done this really - more extended holidaying than the backpacking type travel people normally associate with this sort of lifestyle. Sounds absolutely ideal!

Sounds like merry hell with two little ones!

I would not sell up and just leave the house empty - that way if it does become too stressful or there’s an unexpected injury/illness then you have a house to come back to rather than being homeless.

Look up expat and children's Facebook groups for some of the places you are going to visit. You just need one good one to be the source of all your knowledge to help you settle in quickly to each new location.

Good luck, it sounds amazing! I wish we had the resources to do similar.

Well yes ... hence why I'm not going into on this thread as I just said as it isn't relevant. Sounds like you have a real hang up about it though, so best not to derail the thread.

It depends on your kids. We used to have one holiday for 3-6 weeks every 3 years when kids were young. We started at 3 weeks and lengthened them as kids got older. As young kids 7 days seemed ok, 10 days saw them at their limit, they wanted to go home to their own environment and stuff. Even around 10/11yo they only got to around 3 weeks before the ‘when are we going home’ started. Unfortunately, it always took us several days to get to get to any destination as long distances were involved, we drove and had our own car as was just easier with multiple child seats etc and made getting around places at destination easier. Given my experience, what you suggest would seem a special kind of hell, but I’m sure others have had different experiences.

Luckily your opinion on how other peoples kids are educated is irrelevant, not every kid is happy being told when to talk/think/pee/eat/what to wear/how to cut their hair etc and sit in a stuffy classroom for the majority of the day and their childhood.

I would rent it out also because you don't know what the future holds, at least you'd have a base to come back to. Just make it known its not a long term rental. At least your mortgage would still be getting paid and you wouldn't accidentally dip into house money. Go for it though, what an opportunity to spend time with your little family!

Sell all the belongings you don’t need.
Speak to an agent to get a valuation done, maybe see if you can get photos of the property before you go away?
Rent the property out whilst you’re away to keep a steady income.
Put the house on the market just before you return.

Get your bags packed and go! Life is too short have regrets and you will probably never have the chance again! In years to come, you will look back at your memories and not your dreams!

Yeah, I won't get into what I think about that choice on this thread, lol ...

We went travelling before kids and rented ours out furnished for 6 months. It was a 2 bed, so we rented it as a 1 bed on the condition we could leave the spare room full of stuff. We managed to find a lady who wanted to check the area out before committing to moving and needed furnished and was more than happy to have the living space of a 2 bed for the price of a 1 bed. It was the perfect arrangement for both of us. It worked out really well. She paid a reasonable amount towards our mortgage and we had a house to come home to!

I'd do the same again and not sell my home for such a short amount of time; however, family had the opportunity to go to Thailand for a few years, maybe 5? They'd rented their house out, but they decided to come home a year early and they ended up having to rent somewhere else until their house was empty. Something to bear in mind with renting out your house. What if you've had enough after a month or two?

Dont sell, just in case you should need to return for health issues or if something happens in the family etc. Rent it for a year, until you know whats what and if you settle down somewhere else.

Good luck otherwise :)

You won't get a mortgage as neither of you will being employment please be careful if you try to rent a place a lot of landlords also require you to be employed. Technically you could be homeless