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?!

Did you get to travel much before having children? I can see how doing this before the 3 year old starts school is good in that you couldn't do it after he starts. On the other hand, the two children would need to be oases of calmness for it to be enjoyable. My kids really needed routine at that age.

It sounds absolutely amazing! What a wonderful adventure ✨️ I'd do it in a heartbeat if I had the finances to be able to. Our children DS6 and DD3 would have loved this. Our very happiest times since they were born have been spent on holiday/travelling together.

I voted Yabu because it is MAD to sell and rebuy in that short a period.
legal fees and stamp duties would surely wipe out ANY benefit.
Rent it sure thing but sell???? It’s a no from me.

i think going away for a block period of time is fine. But you have 2 children and I think it’s irresponsible not to have a proper employment plan or failing that, significant financial cushion when you come back.

Separately…. If my DH was driving this and was the high earner I'd also be quite concerned about him enjoying the trust fund baby lifestyle a bit tooo much… coming back to the Uk will be a bump back to reality.

A night wake, hunting everyone up and out from 7-9 then working 9-6 thennnn enjoying kiddie chaos for 2 hours before bed doesn’t seem much fun vs lounging on a beach.
it might be an adventure but it might also be an escape plan…If it’s the latter it will come back and bite you at some point

I have been to Singapore a few times & recently
It is very expensive !
But very clean
Another very hot place !

I think it's selfish if I'm honest.
Your kids will have little memory of it at that age, so this is all definitely about you and DH.

I'd be making really good use of holiday time. Move house, find a new lifestyle and do this travelling later in life.

Do you have backup in the UK for afterwards or if you need to return suddenly? I was thinking parents or other close relatives? If you do and there’d let you move in for a short while to find your feet when you return that’d be a lot easier. Otherwise you could end up burning all your remaining money at the end if you can’t get jobs/ mortgage quickly.

The thought of being unable to recover financially would give me sleepless nights, but perhaps that doesn’t trouble you.

what sort of sector are you both working in? Will it be easy to find jobs when you get back?

can DH cope with the job one more year before taking the plunge? Kids would be a bit older, you’d have more savings and perhaps coujd start looking for that dream house you want to buy to have a more clear picture.

please please do not sell your house!

and finally, why Dubai? With so many other amazing places.

Yes OP life is too short for 'what if's' . I have back packed all over the world and my first husband is SE Asian so also travelled there a lot when they were little. Super easy as got so much help from everyone .

My neighbour took hers aged 2,3 5& 7 sailing around the world for 5 years. No formal education. Just learned a lot about life. The eldest smashed his GCSEs and Alevels and goes to one the countries top universities. So please don't believe that the absence of formal education is going to be a massive detriment in most cases such a huge improvement upon the education to see how the rest of the world lives. All the kids are mature on their years and super polite intolerant. The eldest is about to embark on another world of adventure.

This sounds like madness. Take a two week trip to Europe for starters and see how much fun any type of travelling with toddlers is with no break.

I've travelled to and from Australia and the world but only for up to one month at a time except for one three month trip, for 16 years with kids from aged 3 months onwards. They remember little of it until they were about maybe 8.

It won't be a holiday, it will be going to exist in another place without the comforts of home.

It won't be a holiday, it will be going to exist in another place without the comforts of home

I would have thoughts that the exact reason for doing it

I don't think toddlers would enjoy that tbh. I understand you and your husband wanting to do it but wait until the children are a bit older.

Id recommend living in a place for 6 months or so for a change of scene but not continuously travelling. It will be hard with two toddlers unless they are very laid back.

The only thing to stop me doing things like this is money. If I had the financial means, I would be off. You would be setting up your children for life with values other than their own comfort. Living outside our comfort zones, not relying on material possessions, experiencing different cultures and ways of life. That is invaluable. I am very envious.

Agreed.

This sounds like my idea of hell.
Travelling to the Middle East and south east Asia with toddlers? No thanks!

It's a lot of constant change for them to deal with. Kid this young really need routine and consistency in my opinion or they can become very difficult. They might cope they may not.

But importantly, when does your 3.5 yo start school? September 24? 25?

I personally would go away if it meant them delaying a school start. I'd also want them settled and in a regular routine before school and most importantly, familiar with a school environment through nursery etc.

I'm sure you've considered all the above OP but I personally wouldn't. If you can, it's an amazing opportunity to be able to do something like this in the current climate.

I'm on team 'go travel'.

Re house- it's your main asset /investment - I'd be looking to maximise return. Eg you wouldn't cash in your ISAs and stick the money under your mattress for 18 months when travelling- so think about the house in the same way? I'd try and make the decision from an financial pov- which includes hassle factor / new mortgage on return etc- rather than emotional- other options to look at - house swap plus Airbnb when not house swapping?

Could you pick up some remote work for financial buffer as an option?

I wouldn't be worried about schools (these things have a way of working out in the vast majority of cases- Mumsnet tends to obsess over the exceptions...) Illness (travel insurance), not forming close relationships with other adults (wtaf?!), detriment to language development (ditto).

I've never done what you are looking to do. I wish you well. Seize the opportunity.

We travelled with a toddler. And at the time it felt great but he’s 10 now and he has no memory and didn’t benefit from it at all.

we should have waited until he was older but sadly we used our savings and when we came home it was very difficult to buy a house again.

He's 10 and begging for a long haul holiday as he’s ’never been anywhere cool’ which we can’t afford due to our new mortgage rate….

Sounds very hard work and unsettling for children that young. But you know your children...

Even if you plan to relocate in UK, I still wouldn’t sell your house. And why would you want to spend a minute in Dubai let alone with 2 kids. Having done backpacking id honestly wait and do it when they’re older. They won’t appreciate it, it’ll just be a slog with that age

I would expect that children and probably adults have the health crises most at a point of transition. When you have just arrived or are packing to leave. When doors are propped open and things are not in their normal place.

If your child gets sick or injured you get a very intensive introduction to the local health service. Which may be brilliant or abysmal or somewhere in between. There may be wranglings about treatment plans both with doctors and insurers.

Our DS suffered a relatively minor injury while we lived abroad - he had the end of one finger sliced off. This necessitated surgery plus a couple of weeks of follow up appointments to check progress. Fortunately we lived near a major city with a children's hospital.

The cost was not high but it is disruptive. Not having family around means that parents have to manage other children between themselves.

The amount of suncream application required on two toddlers would be enough to put me off.

Have you tried spending a day shouting "put your hat back on!" every 6 minutes. That should give you a good idea of what it might be like.

I'm on the fence with 'but they won't remember it's. They won't remember 'sing and play' sessIons either, or the coffee catch ups with NCT mums etc

Yes, but keep the house and rent it out. I have friends that took a road trip across the US with similar aged children. Not always easy but life isn't always easy, wherever you are. We travelled for a year pre kids and saw lots of young families.

I am curious about how many of those nay sayers have travelled much themselves?!

Sell your house now and relocate to where you want to live in the UK before you leave.

Rent out the house you have just bought.

Go traveling.

Yes do it! But keep your house, maybe rent it out for some extra income. I know it’s cliche but you only have one life and there’s so much more to it then working jobs we hate. Go and have an amazing experience. Mine are a bit older (6&2) but I’ve been thinking about doing something like this a lot recently, although dh and I both like our jobs and love where we live so wouldn’t want to sell!