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?!

@travellingwithtoddlers We're debating this too, although I only have one two-year-old. Our current plans are either to get a visa to move to Spain - I'm eligible, but it's expensive and a frustrating process - or to travel in the way you've planned.

A university friend of mine is doing it with her four children at the moment. They sold their Australian home and spent three weeks in Bali, but felt it wasn't child-friendly enough, and then started travelling. They've done longer stretches in Vietnam, Thailand and are currently in Morocco at a world school site, where they're staying for a bit. They're going to Egypt next for a month, and then looking for somewhere in South America to "settle" for six months, as they've found nine months of moving every 2 - 6 weeks has taken it's toll and they'd all like to rest a bit. They've done shorter trips to Paris, Germany, Poland and Spain, too, but they have to be mindful of the 90/180-day rule, as we would too. They also did Christmas in Japan, but that was a special bucket-list thing, I think.

I love to travel with my little one, and I'd love to give him that experience. My only concern with your plan would be your eldest's age... 3.5 seems too late. She'll be disadvantaged with not starting school with her peers, if you intend that she goes to school here. She'll have a brilliant time travelling, but I think you need to plan to wrap it up before she needs to start.

You'd also need to be mindful of the laws where you'd be when she'd be due to start. Spain, for example, doesn't allow home-schooling, and some other places are the same.

Yes, I do agree - more of a very long extended holiday.

I agree it’s not “seeing the world” in the typical sense - but it’s definitely seeing more of it than being stuck in the UK! I’d like to do my usual SAHM life, just in some different countries whilst seeing some new places! As opposed to back packing through countries without the facilities I would need for the DC.

No, schools are actually closing in some places because there aren’t enough children. The LA has a statutory duty to educate all children so you’d definitely get a place, it might not be in the school you’d ideally choose. If you’re moving anyway that would factor into your decision about where to live.

I would definitely ensure we only went to places with adequate healthcare facilities for sure.

We know that we would have to come back to the UK and rent temporarily until DH found a new job / could get a mortgage again. We have factored this into costs. DH would be able to find a new job quite easily, and could go in at a slightly lower level than what he is at now if needed.

OP- have you looked into travel insurance for the trip? Being properly covered for both health AND potential need for medical evacuation would be vital.

I think it sounds amazing! Though agree that selling your old house and buying one in an area with good primary schools and renting it out then makes sure that you're all set up for your return, with no issues getting a mortgage after a period of no earnings.

And I was going to suggest some time in New Zealand as well - beautiful country, friendly people, so much to see.

Yes, you need very good insurance. My BIL and his wife live in SE Asia and end up on drips a few times a year due to dodgy tummies!

I mean, if your kids are experienced travellers and you've sorted out all the logistics, dont think your toddlers are going to beca nightmare, then the other issues are resolvable I think. The school thing- if you are moving anyway you can easily homeschool a 5 year old until a school place came up. Have you thought of hiring a camper van in each place and using that to travel in? I also agree with others- what are you going to do in Dubai for 2 months? You could go for a couple of weeks and see everything, whereas almost anywhere else in Asia you could be there for 2 months and not even scratch the surface!

I definitely wouldn’t use baby sitters. We don’t use baby sitters here in the UK either and are too far from our families to have them look after DC too. DC are constantly with me and DH so this would be no different whether we were in the UK or abroad.

I don’t think this will affect language acquisition - it it would, then DC would already be affected (they aren’t).

We wouldn’t rent our house out. If we decided that selling the house and moving wouldn’t work, we wouldn’t go (or would just go for a shorter period of time and leave the house empty).

Thank you! Sounds like you had an amazing time.

Did you stay in hotels or short term rentals?

@ChiefEverythingOfficer Any tips?!

Wow! Do you have any recommendations for places you found particularly child friendly?

Their world will shrink to just the nuclear family.

@Mumoftwo1312 Do you really think that families without extended families are that damaging to children?

We don't have grandparents - my parents died when I was a child, DH's chose not to have anything to do with our son. DH has half-brothers but is forbidden any contact with them. We have friends, of course, but I'm not sure that I'd say that they've meaningfully contributed to his life in the way you're implying - and we'd certainly make friends abroad, too.

DS has been babysat by one person since he was born; for 4 hours, on one occasion. Otherwise he's been with me or DH. I'm not sure this is that unusual, or damaging. It's just how it is.

I would have to home school until a place did come up. Are primary schools really so full that it’s a possibility I wouldn’t be able to get a place (genuinely asking as I didn’t know this?)?!

It depends on the area and how large the school is, I guess, but it's definitely something you need to consider - tor financial reasons as much as anything else.

The issue with renting her home out is that her tenants may refuse to leave - it could cost a fortune taking them to court and who knows what state the house would be left in.

You'd also need a mortgage that allowed you to have tenants in the first place.

The “long holiday” was what we initially discussed. DH will be leaving his current job and we will be moving house to a different city no matter what.

The original plan was to sell our house and move into a rental in the new city in order to be in a better position to buy (no chain). DH planned on taking a few months break from work and then starting his new job towards the end of the year, ready to buy a house in the new city next year.

The idea came about when we thought why not rent abroad instead of in the UK for the interim? And we went from there. DH would turn down the offer of the new job and hope to get something else upon our return.

Thank you! Thanks for the recommendations.

We would be very open to DH making contacts whilst we’re there that could result in us eventually relocating for a longer period of time!

DH would turn down the offer of the new job and hope to get something else upon our return

It all seems very "pie in the sky" - how will you get a rental or a mortgage when neither of you are working? How will you get your children a school place if you don’t have a fixed address? How will you afford to homeschool if neither of you have a guaranteed job?

Now is quite simply the worst time to do this.
The worst.

Your DCs need stability and routine now. You need to put this first.
Go to "a country" for a year. Not back packing.

Sorry if you’ve already answered this question, but where will you live when you return to the UK and your DH is job-hunting? Could you stay with family to save money?

It'll be tough to get a rental with no income, you could always get a long term Airbnb, I suppose.

Why not move to the new city, rent, and start exploring together a new UK life.
You can still have a fortnight in Bali if you want the beach but you could spend the UK summer going to arts cinemas/community gardening/yoga/Morris dancing/choir what ever you fancy, tag teaming the parenting so you both get a physical & mental break. Going swimming, bike rides as a family. Build community relationships, find friends, entertain, get yourself a really strong foundation to build for the future.

Propping up the kafala system might get you some stunning infinity pool pictures, whilst eyeballing non swimming kids, but is it really worth the Cost of luxury

This is such a bad idea. Your poor kids, having no stable foundation, no proper assets, money pissed up the wall on their parents’ jollies that they won’t be able to take advantage of later in life.

This would be such a a selfish, thoughtless decision.

😂😂😂😂😂