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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask what you would do with a year off?

56 replies

bubblegumbottles · 02/02/2019 18:18

Just a bit of fun really but could also be useful for some ideas!

Me and DH have worked our butts off the last couple of years to build our business. We're just finishing up a major project that has put enough in our savings for us both to take at least a year off work. The project will pay us dividends for the next 3-5 years also so we wouldn't be just frittering it all away.

Our first child is due in 12 weeks so I suspect we'll spend a lot of time just enjoying being new parents but my question is...

What would YOU do with a year off?

OP posts:
Sarahandduck18 · 02/02/2019 18:20

Having your first dc is so far from a year off!

BlueJava · 02/02/2019 18:21

Go trekking - Eastern and Southern China, Nepal and Tibet.

Original poster
bubblegumbottles · 02/02/2019 18:57

@Sarahandduck18 indeed! I suspect it will be far off from our original plan of travelling around Asia 😂

OP posts:
Onwardsagain · 02/02/2019 19:00

I'm currently retraining via distance learning. If I had a year off I'd make as big a dent into my course as possible. Sad but true!

norbert23 · 02/02/2019 19:04

I had friends who travelled with their new baby! Looked like tons of fun - I spent the equivalent time in my pjs with my baby, watching box sets and eating...

C0untDucku1a · 02/02/2019 19:05

You dont have a year off. You have maternity leave. You will struggle to get dressed some day.

With a year off i would do what i do on my day off each week. School run and walk the dog.

If we all had a year off, with money, we would travel.

SunnyCoco · 02/02/2019 19:07

Travelling

CuriousaboutSamphire · 02/02/2019 19:10

Borrow a campervan and travel the UK. Me, DH, the dog, a camera and no real itinerary...

Mummadeeze · 02/02/2019 19:11

If I had the money I would visit as many states in USA as I could by doing a massive road trip, staying in motels, eating in diners, seeing the sites and meeting locals. Despite Trump, I just love America so that would be my dream.

Thisisthelaststraw · 02/02/2019 19:14

Finally tackle my weight and health. Go to regular counselling. Treat myself at the end with a month in Orlando with family.

Chilledout11 · 02/02/2019 19:15

New baby = year off

Funniest thing I have read in years!!

Mummyshark2019 · 02/02/2019 19:31

I would travel for a year. See the world.....

Neverender · 02/02/2019 19:34

Move to France with my new baby and eat cheese and drink cheap lovely red wine for a year. Have fun whatever you decide to do!

Sarahandduck18 · 02/02/2019 20:57

If you manage to have 365 showers I’d be amazed!

With a child free year off most people would say travel.

If you still really want to travel read Sarah tucker’s ‘have baby will travel’.

OublietteBravo · 02/02/2019 21:02

I’d study. I think I could fit in a masters in a year.

Redtartanshoes · 02/02/2019 21:13

You should travel. They are never so easy as when they are under 9 months

MsJaneAusten · 02/02/2019 21:22

Hahahahahahahaha.

A year off!

Hahahahahahahaha.

Please do report back...

halfwitpicker · 02/02/2019 21:31

Reckon the op means year off in the sense that they both don't need to work. I'm sure she realises the baby won't be a year off, as it were

PatPhoenix · 02/02/2019 21:42

I wouldn't travel with a year off. I would say yes to every single invitation, take frivolous courses like linocut, French cookery and tantric sex, and have liaisons with an unseemly number of men.

I actually did take a few evening classes on maternity leave, and joined the governing body of the local primary school. All educative.

toriatoriatoria · 02/02/2019 21:49

Another vote for traveling! If I had the money I'd do all through Asia, Australia & New Zealand and America. It would be amazing!

BowBeau · 02/02/2019 21:49

You most certainly will not be doing trekking or studying with a new baby! You’ll bleed for the first couple of months and be recovering from birth injuries. After that you’ll just be exhausted from being awake all night and constantly feeding, rocking, changing, burping, playing. Some days you’ll struggle to even get dressed because you’re so exhausted and in pain. Mine is a year old and we’ve only just reached the point where I can put him down to look after himself for 15 minutes. I’m still completely unable to have any length of time to myself to even read a book, never mind anything else.

BowBeau · 02/02/2019 21:52

Apart from anything else, you’ll need to be in the UK so your child can receive vaccinations and checkups.

speakout · 02/02/2019 21:56

I did take a year off in my early 30s ( no children at theat point.

I went travelling for a year.

Having a baby is not a year off!

I would not liked to have travelled with a small baby.
We went to some far flung exotic places, with poor sanitation etc and did a lot of adventurous activities- would not have worked with baby.

Hohofortherobbers · 02/02/2019 22:13

Sleep

stinkypoo · 02/02/2019 22:21

Quite aside from the other useful posts, if you can both afford a year off, with a new baby, I would be so tempted to buy/rent a mobile home and travel around Europe.
You'd have everything you need to hand for the baby and get to visit brilliant places. At that age, babies are so portable, it is arguably the best time to travel with kids.

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