If you don't live in a standard "normal" way, how do you live?

[curiositykilledthecatsplat]

Curious to know how people live if you don't live in "standard" way, how do you live? ie you live in a commune, you travel the world with your family etc etc

@Bluedeblue

I work for myself from home, doing a job that most people think is just for pocket money. There's not really any "work" involved. I actually earn more now than I did as a Bank Manager.

Do tell!

@TableFlowerss - I'm over 40 and have insta! Everyone I know does. Even my 75 year old mother does :-)

@Psychgrad

For people who live off grid, like in Norway and and on tropical islands, what the hell are you doing on mumsnet ? Genuinely curious.

I spent 6 years on a tropical island but I still loved a dose of mumsnet!

@shewalkslikerihanna

Live between two homes March to end of November Not just talking weekends Spend more time at our holiday home then our normal home It’s about 5/2 or 4/3 Bloody love it Had a cracking 5 days this week Then in the winter spend about 8 weeks abroad

Probably nothing very unusual in that though to be fair

I do this all of the academic year. Live in our town property during the week for school, work etc. Spend every weekend and holiday in our country place. Takes a bit of organisation but worth it!

Similar to a couple of others I'm an only child of 2 only children. My only blood relatives are the 2 I gave birth 2. Both my dysfunctional parent are dead.

[quote mmgirish]@TableFlowerss - I'm over 40 and have insta! Everyone I know does. Even my 75 year old mother does :-)[/quote]
Maybe I need to think my SM choices! I’ve got FB

Well, some members of my small-minded very conventional family think DP and I don't live in a normal way because we're in our 40s and have a lodger. They cannot get their heads round sharing space with non-family.
I don't think it's unusual at all but then again I move in different circles.
Anyway, I'm largely marking my place until I get a chance to read about all the genuinely unusual and interesting stories on here

@chewedpencil

I wonder how much more of my life I will waste stuck in a pokey house with an unambitious husband and a wanker of a boss, and whether I'll ever be able to feel really alive again.

You have tasted real freedom and mangaed your wild side. I dont know if normal life is ever enough after that.

I remember hitching a ride in a lorry through the Negev desert as the sun shone down on us and feeling alive in a way that I never want to forget. Just had a swiss army knife on me and my wits and a bottle of beer. Old pair of army fatigues cut into shorts, boots, and a tshirt, aged 18 and free as a bird. It's a beautiful feeling.

@Smurfsarethefuture sounds like a great adventure!

@Blossominspring2021

It was. following year I hitched around Eastern Europe just after Berlin wall came down. Different experience as it was like a live history lesson but I remember taht sensation of walking through life with my yes open to everything around me fully aware and in the present. Everything falls into perspective (especially when you have to find somewhere to sleep that night).

But atm, I do feel a bit like @chewedpencil. Modern life and work makes you very small and we consider it real life when it is the opposite.

It is taking all my will power atm to resist the urge to pack my trusty backpack and head off on a road trip !

eyes, not yes!

It does sound very vivid! I’m tempted to do another trip myself when this pandemic is over. I have a disabled son but who knows, maybe we can find something.

@Blossominspring2021

I do think it is possible (and I really hope you can). What a fantastic experience for your son. Who knows what positive effects it will have on him. I think th elittle thing slike feeling the sun on your body, swimming in the sea, being really relaxed in yourself are the benefits and that happens when you aren't rushing back to a Monday morning deadline amnd trying to squeeze a months worth of rest into a weeks holiday.

I don't have an Instagram nor a WhatsApp account - that seems pretty unusual these days!

Neither do I. Or Facebook.

Jaichangecentfoisdenom
Gosh thats exactly how I met DesertRoze. It's been ages since I used forum . It had a whole and very active section dedicated on how to handle maids

My grandparents lived on a house boat on the Thames until they sold that and had a narrow boat built. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away a year or two after they started touring the U.K., my grandmother then did it solo with friends/family going on holiday visiting her in the summer and then repaying the visits in the winter.
I spent every summer holiday on the boat until it was sold when my grandmother was 85 and went into a home after a bad fall.

Thank you so much for this thread. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it & it has made me think that there is more to life than a 9-5 job & a weekend of telly watching on the sofa!
I am 52 years old & soon the kids will be adults & hopefully making their own way in life. This thread has made me think that I can still have an adventure of my own - maybe I'll meet some of you in a few years time when I go on my backpacking expedition!

Brilliant thread, thanks!

I live a very normal life, the only thing I've done is live in another country for 13 years from the age of 18. Back in the UK and very boring these days. I'd love to live on a boat one day, especially as I'll never be able to afford to buy a house, but wouldn't know where to start!

I do live at the seaside though, so my life is like a permanent holiday really, walks on the beach, ice cream any day I like

Wow, some really adventurous lives out there!
But my god I realised just how much I appreciate my conventional life
I also have a lot of family responsibilities which mean I wouldn’t be able to just up and leave (although I’d never want to, I’m a home girl and love my house. Adore going on holiday but always happy to get home again. Couldn’t think of anything worse for me personally than a lot of these scenarios here but it’s wonderful reading about them. I know so many people who would hate to lead my conventional life though, no shade to anyone!!).
An old school friend of mine moved to Canada and her and her husband built their own home with wood/trees/timber they cut themselves, it’s amazing. I went to visit them about 15 years ago as they had a baby and they were living a brilliant life, lots of outdoor activities and it felt generally very wholesome. No family out there but they’ve made some great friends.

Some fascinating tales. Loved the poster way up thread who sleeps outside half the year. And the Norwegian vet.

Like many PP I still reminisce wistfully about my many, many travels when young. I've worked in Greece, Australia and the US and travelled in every continent except Africa, SE Asia being my spiritual home. I've been living a conventional life for 20 years, now with 3 children and a 2nd husband. I plan to live my adventures once the DC are grown but also live vicariously through them: we've always instilled a huge sense of adventure on them and ex- DH is planning to take the eldest 2 to India for a month in 2022. I hope it'll give them both the travel bug and I can experience it all again through their eyes.

@habibihabibi

Jaichangecentfoisdenom Gosh thats exactly how I met DesertRoze. It's been ages since I used forum . It had a whole and very active section dedicated on how to handle maids

This wasn’t the Dubai expat woman forum, by any chance? I lived maidfree in Dubai but used to read the forum precisely for the frequently batshit ‘maid-handling’ threads which always had the staples of demented national stereotyping, paranoia about the Filipina ‘maid mafia’ (they communicated while walking their madams’ dogs and shared gossip and fomented rebellion), and enormous sexual discomfort about having another woman in their home (tales of either finding maid in bed with DH or in bed with boyfriend wearing madam’s underwear), and often culminated with making the maid pack publicly and frogmarching her to her flight.

@TheSaucepanMan

I live in a commune of witches, we prepare ourselves for weeks in advance before each solstice so the high priest can choose who he will seed during the fertile time of the moon.

We bathe in goat milk and wander naked between the sacred stones on the eve of the full moon, silent in preparation for new energies to fill us and help expand our light bodies.

And then the alarm clock goes off and it's the start of a new day

I grew up as a traveller and then spent my teenage years living in a hippy commune. Moved out when I was older because I wanted the comfort of a house and some 'normality'. However, in recent years I have really begun to regret it. My kids don't get nearly as much freedom as I did and their life experiences haven't been nearly as diverse. This idea of normality is definitely overrated, and actually not very normal at all when you really think about it!