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

Many parents opt to home ed these days and not put their kids in the state daycare.

I am insanely jealous. Would love to do this. We backpacked in India when our two were a bit older and have also travelled in Africa and America with babies and young toddlers. Obviously you have to make concessions and trying to maintain a routine can be tricky but it’s absolutely worth it. Have an amazing time.

Do it!
We did exactly that, sold up travelled with our kids SE Asia, Japan, Australia and 2 are now settled and couldn't be happier in NZ. Life's so short you can always go home if you don't like it. I'd probably rent my house out though if I wasn't sure!!
Happy travels

Personally I think you would be nuts to do it but I also know people who have done it and loved it.

The thing I would consider though is whether this will fix things or not. You still have to come back, your DH will have to go back to work at some point, will you just be punting the stress down the line ?

We did something a bit like this, the kids were 2, 6 and 9 ish. We rented out our house, although actually when we came back we remortgaged it to release equity for a deposit on a new house elsewhere in the country. We spent 6 months in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia then 18m in Southern Africa (including DH working in South Africa for a while). Came back for DC1 to start secondary school.

Rent your house instead of selling it.

He remembers nothing! He is autistic although academically very successful. I will never know if the autism was because of what we did or hereditary and inevitable. At the time he enjoyed having the stability of the motor homes and a different back garden every day

The children complained bitterly when we told them we were going but then quite liked the attention of leaving. They adapted to coming back easily, picked up old friendships and made new ones. They missed out on nothing. My eldest had a place at secondary school so wouldn’t have done much for those last 2 terms. My youngest seemed to catch up no problem. They also had mandarin lessons when we were in Shanghai for a month. They were old enough to remember a lot of the trip which was good because some of it was expensive - Sumo, Great Wall of China, Angkor wat, cruising in halong bay. They were robust enough to carry luggage, miss meals, eat interesting food, be independent which was great. I can honestly say it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

This sounds amazing! Does he remember any of it now?

I'm desperate to do something similar, but I can't afford to do it twice so trying to work out how to make it work schoolwise and socially but also leave them with memories.

It sounds like a dream trip. I'm torn about doing the same with either toddlers, because there's less disruption to school and friendships, or older children because they'll remember it for the rest of their life.

How did your children find being away from friends for so long and going back to friendship groups after such a long break?
Did they feel they missed out or were left out when they came back?
Was the school ok with it? Did they do work whilst away? Was it in the gap between primary and secondary school and did your 11 have to leave friends they'd just made at secondary school and then how did they fit in when they got back to fully formed friendship groups?

Based on this, and your other posts that show this is important to you, I'm reiterating my yanbu! And only partly because this is also my dream and I'm hoping you'll share tips later😁honestly, what's the point in working hard, saving and progressing with your career if not to do things you're excited about for you and your family?!

Agree, it’s now or never! I would rather start the older child to school slightly later than normal and with this experience than interrupt their schooling further down the line.
Do it, I think it’s fab.

Round the world took a year, but we did a year in Europe in a huge American RV before that

How long did you go for, @GuyOnAMotorcycle? It sounds wonderful.

We did exactly this in 2004. Sold our house in Berkshire and bought in Dorset on our return. My son was 2 years old and we were careful to choose relatively "safe" countries. Our itinerary was Hong Kong, Singapore, Adelaide , Alice Springs, Cairns, Sydney, Christchurch, Auckland, Rarotonga, Tahiti, Los Angeles, Miami. We hired a motor home in Australia and NZ, then bought one in LA and sold it in Miami. DS got sick in Fiji and needed antibiotics, but this was relatively simple to sort out. At the time there was a deal on round the world flights at about £800pp. I thought the housing market was overheated at the time (got that one wrong), but the invested money from the house rose in line with housing price rises. My sister sorted a school place so that DS had a place when we returned.
It was the best thing we ever did and we have no regrets at all. Go for it

Go for it but I wouldn’t bother with Dubai - it’s incredibly boring. I think other options, even just within Europe, for that part of the trip would be much more fun and stimulating

Rent your house out. Buy a motorhome in areas where it’s feasible. (Oz, USA, Baltics etc) Sell it when you want to move on.

I know various families who have done this, both with toddlers and taking older children out of school. My main take from their wonderful experiences was to go as soon as possible, because the limiting factor is your energy level, which may lessen with age. Kids are adaptable, some more than others, depending how they have been brought up. They need to nap and feed when they want to, and to have quick access to a parent, but they can learn to cope with most of the rest, as long as the pace is not hectic.

They pick up languages easily - they may not remember much, but if they learn that language later, they do so more easily and have a good accent. They learn to play with other children, to become competent and resilient, and to behave courteously and flexibly, noticing that different behaviour is appropriate in different cultures.

You may not get a school place on return, but if you show that you are happy to continue to home educate, I've known local authorities make more effort to find a school place that you will accept.

Yes but will you be able to afford it? Keeping your house to sell on your return means that your major asset will benefit from increases in property prices (plus have the rental income while away).

It's unlikely IMO, that whatever savings you have for a deposit would be able to keep pace with the rise in house prices.

Basically, you'd need a property crash to get back on the property ladder.

kids won’t remember this and need routine. Buy a lower cost house where you want to be and take a month break in the summer to recharge your batteries!

Two months off around the world with a 10 and 12yo sounds like a lovely meaningful experience, they'd get a lot out of it and still have their home and friendships and school to come back to.

Totally different from 12-18 months with a 1 and 3yo.

Sounds amazing! I moved overseas with work (Africa) when my kids were 2 and 6 and we’ve had so many adventures (and parasites and other bugs - kids will pick things up- but being aware of the risks and knowing where you can get good medical care means it’s been so worth it). I would keep the house and rent it out even if you’re planning to move location as you never know whether your plans will change or not and you can always sell it later.

We did a version of this. We took the children aged 9 and 11 out of school for 2 terms and travelled around SE Asia. It was amazing.

I would absolutely never, ever have done it with toddlers. We also rented out our house.

Not going to add comment on the pro's or cons of you following your plans, but a word of advice to carefully check out the visa requirements needed for each of the countries you are planning to visit - there is a huge difference in what is needed for a tourist visit and longer residency.

Most of the ME countries allow a tourist stay by UK nationals of between 30 and 60 days, BUT if you are planning to stay longer you would need a sponsor in that country - usually your employer - to obtain a residency visa. The alternative is that you leave every 30/60 days and come back in again on a new tourist visa.

Lived in the ME for 16 years and know what a pain sorting visas can be.

What a wonderful thing to do! We took two months off 'around the world' with a 10 and 12 year old and it was fabulous. Of course you can't do everything you want to do (because kids of any age don't like what their parents want to do 😂) but if you can afford it and want to do it, why not?

Is your husband okay with dealing with two kids on his own? Just make sure you'll be able to have a morning or afternoon off every now and again (and for him too)! Although by the end of it, he should be more than able to handle two kids and cooking meals etc like the SAHM have to do. It's good for him, good for his relationship with the children and for yours. What a gift to spend all that time together when they're little!

For everyone who finds traveling with their children awful, I do feel a little sad for you. Ours were great travel companions and I'm so grateful for that.