To just want to sell up and do something more with life??

[ohnoohnoo]

Got two young DC (under 6), surely I can't be the only person who feels like me and Dh just work purely to be able to 'get by'. We do still do the occasional typical fun days out with the kids but some times I feel like we do the things we're 'supposed' to do with them rather than things we enjoy. For example we do theme parks, farm days etc which cost an arm and a leg when you're actually there and inevitably end up with some type of tantrum.

Obviously it would never happen but with the price of everything going up (and the added worry that our mortgage fixed term ends in 6 months!) I just feel like saying sod it, selling up and taking the kids travelling or something.

Just a bit of a rambling rant sorry! I just wonder is there something more we could be doing with our lives! I feel like I'm living life wrong!

I get you OP. Me & DH work 100 hours a week between us.
I feel all we do is work to pay the mortgage & bills and have enough for a holiday once a year.
It's half term for us this week and we have booked a day off to do something with the DC (14
& 15).
DC don't want to actually do anything, they want to chill and just be at home for the week.
We feel we have to do something as it's half term - and there is pressure from grandparents who are criticising us for not doing anything/having plans this week - so we are having a day out.
But I cant help but feel there has to be more to life than this.
Go to work, work a hell of a lot of hours, pay bills, juggle finances, each month review plans to pay off long-term debt which seems never ending, we also did the usual farm days out etc when DC were younger, have a roast on a sunday type-of-thing.

Check out www.sailinghollyblue.com they are a liveaboard English family who are sailing around the Greek islands with their 2 young DC.
They are not rich, they sold up in the UK to buy the boat.
They home (boat) school, they swim every day, they sail to different islands each week, they paddle board/snorkel every day, catch fish for dinner, have bbqs on remote beaches, eat onboard under the sun.
Their diet is amazing in terms of the fresh fish/fruit they have.
I'm not into sailing at all but follow this family for their amazing alternative lifestyle.
Their webpage gives a link to their YouTube videos. which vlogs their every day life.
It really makes you wonder what the hell we are all doing living the hamster wheel type of rat race in a suburban semi doing the same as everyone else in the UK week in, week out.
It's a real eye opener.
It makes you think/aware that there is a hell of a lot more out there than how we are currently living our lives ...

So glad I'm not the only one feeling like this! I will definitely have a look at that link now.
Would your children be interested in doing something like that (without the boats) now they are a bit older?

Def check it out and watch the videos. It will change your look on life !
DH & I want to move abroad, where we feel life is a lot more easy going, and live in a villa with a pool near the sea. Give up our stressful office jobs with long hours. Maybe own a pub/restaurant but we are not always front of house/working at the business. Rent out an apartment via airbnb or booking.com and manage the rentals. But the DC don't want to move abroad.

I have this feeling too
feel like packing up and moving to Cyprus to live with my family

That www.sailinghollyblue.com family were on a Channel 5 show and the mum was still stuck doing all the family drudgery, just on a boat.

www.channel5.com/show/my-new-greek-life

@MattDamon yes that's them. Of course they still have chores/life admin to do but look at the freedom their lifestyle gives them. Less chores, more headspace. The lifestyle they have given their DC is amazing.

Hell yes.
We're at an interesting age/stage. Each have 2 kids, youngest is mine and 17. He'll prob go to uni in 2024. Others are older but only 22 at eldest, all live with us.
We want to move abroad. We have equity in the house and some savings.
I recently changed jobs and feel that I'm doing a much less worthy role and just work to survive.
I just need to work out how to leave them all 🤣

I did it the other way round.. Worked overseas and had kids late, my sons only 4. Travelled the world and did a lot of random, moderately dangerous nonsense.
Happy with daily grind now as had my adventures!
May retire to a canal barge or similar one day and have new adventures lol

Absolutely agree OP.
We live abroad, in a beautiful country but between us are still working 120+ hours a week and thats us in low season now. I work 6 and dh is still working 7 days/nights a week. Barely get any time at all with ds and the guilt is with me every single day. I hate it. We still struggle at the end of every month, and haven't managed to save enough for a holiday this year either. Its only goung to get worse next year as our mortgage is set to go up 100s in January.

How is hawking your kids’ lives on TV and SM the aspiration? 🤣 God no!

My teens would take one look at that and say they’d rather have their privacy and all their friends and football club (etc) than swim every day.

I think you’ll find more happiness appreciating what you do have, and making small changes for improving there, than watching someone who has a vested interested in selling you their lifestyle, as they need the interest of people like to fund it.

@Testina nowhere did I say I would want to document it/put it on social media. That's my idea of hell.

My dream would be to use money we have in the house to travel for a year or so and then settle down somewhere and start back up with normal life again.

I just don't want to get to old age and wonder what I did with my life!

It's so depressing isn't it! What is the point of working constantly and not being able to do anything you want to do! I agree it's only going to get worse, that's why if I could I would just take the plunge and do something about it now.

@ohnoohnoo I didn’t think you were proposing that! I was just pointing out that someone else on SM doing it may not be the ideal it sounds. If they’re using SM towards funding it, there’s only so much reality they’re going to show.

You could spend your days wishing you were swimming in the sea every day, and that family might make it look fab. But the reality may be that no-one in your family wants to swim every day - or at least wouldn’t give other things up to achieve it!

Change everything and travel if you want to - but look for joy where you can in your life now.

Ah ok, sorry I misunderstood your post!

Yes I really should start looking for the good things in life now. And there are plenty, I know I am very lucky to have my children and we have a roof over our heads etc. I just wish I could do something to make the most out of life rather than just feeling like we are plodding along through it

I think a starting point is to stop doing the things you think you “should”.
Don’t go to a theme park when there’s something else you enjoy instead.

Speaking as an expat who moved overseas several times, if you are serious about doing it, you need to do it now. Your kids will get very enmeshed in their lives after a certain age, and once they hit high school - unless they're boarding - they will not want to go. We would quite like to be able to move again, but it would be horribly unfair to my DC as they love their schools/friends/clubs etc.

Hoping once they all get settled in uni, we will have way more freedom again (apart from the fucking dogs my DH keeps accumulating 🙈)

Watch Ben Fogles New Live in the Wild. All about families and people who do something different with their life. They usually lie somewhere very remote though.

DH and I quit our jobs and travelled for a year (no kids) - best thing we ever did. I am fully intending (if financially possible!) to do this again if we do have kids but I’d probably try and do it with primary school age.
otherwise , as a moderate option, can you stop the expensive days out and direct the money to a big family holiday, like 2-3 weeks in a cheap country like Thailand?