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

[travellingwithtoddlers]

DH have been discussing the possibility of doing this for a while. DH is incredibly unhappy with his job at the moment and is considering quitting and having a break to de-stress. I am a SAHM and we have two toddlers aged 1 and 3.5.

We don’t need to sell our house to use the money to travel (we have savings we could use). We are considering selling our house, lots of our possessions and our cars in order to reduce our responsibilities here at home and putting things that we want to keep into storage.

Ideally we would spend some time in SE Asia, Australia, the Middle East and perhaps return home after 12-18 months. We would then look to buy a house again upon our return.

Is this idea great or am I just swept up with the excitement of planning the trip? We can afford to support ourselves for the trip, but it would use all of our savings. We would be returning purely to a deposit for a house (from the sale of our current house) which would be approx 40% of the value of the sort of house we would like to buy (if this makes any difference!).

Also - does anyone have any tips on places to visit?!

Was hesitant to suggest this - but given the world economy now and the housing market and a looming general election, I would recommend this too - say, taking a 6m sabbatical from work, not selling but getting a house-sitter/maintenance firm to keep an eye on your property and see how you feel 6m down the line. When you all come back OP you can sell the house/DH can get a new job if needed.

But, really, if this is driven by DH feeling unhappy and stressed at work [not sure if it is ALL work related or whether he is generally ‘unhappy’], the most sensible solution would actually be for him to have some counselling and you all to have a luxury extended family holiday in the summer, maybe with an extra couple of weeks unpaid leave if the employer would entertain this.

IME if there is underlying unhappiness and/or depression you tend to take it with you - on holidays and into new jobs and houses.

What the hell is going on with you? You have repeatedly latched onto my posts like a pitbull and tossed them around between your teeth, grabbing onto some phrase you don't like or some opinion you imagine I have and over-reacting. You keep making strange assertions and weird little comments about me as if you know me, which you don't, and you have been extraordinarily rude to me, again, as if you know me, and know where I'm coming from, which you don't.

I am not you. Get over that. It's really not that hard to understand.

Just ignore it.

That pp came on to thread to share her story of doing this journey, which was nice of her to share - but then when commenters have critiqued op's plan she's mistakenly interpreted it as criticism of her own parenting choices, even though we are addressing the op, not her.

I think it's mostly people who are insecure in their choices who get defensive of them, so that may be the case here or maybe not

I don't think a genuine person would post something as childish as "Lol, you are such a joy", so I'd just take it that it's someone on the wind-up and ignore them.

Thank you, both.

Meanwhile, I suspect that poster's children will have a very different story to tell.

Hiding this thread now.

Calm down. It's actually the other way round.

You have done nothing but dismiss the OP without once even trying to see the other side. If you take a look at my posts you will see I have been quite balanced

If anything you have latched and gone out of your way to push your very one sided agenda. You need a little levity in your life. You clearly have no capacity to accept any other way of life. I won't apologize for calling you out on it. Perhaps you should have stepped away from the thread earlier. Before you repeatedly went out for the OPs children and now mine.

Don't let the door hit you on the backside on the way out.

I was going to say the same thing as most people best idea would be to rent out the house.

Yes.

Go for it

Your head is full of magic lovey.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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?!