Mid life crisis, perimeno, gap year

[Sammy900]

Hey

Anyone else just daydreaming of running off and travelling the world for a bit?

These peri-meno hormones are in full swing and life just feels so boring, monotonous, never ending. Fed up of care-giver being my primary purpose.

I'm not depressed I'm just a bit meh, already on HRT...I have senior school teens so pretty stationary for a while. Love my family. Love my full time job. I'm busy but not mentally challenged enough these days. I've reached the top at what I do but there's no incentive for another promotion as it would be a lot of stress for rubbish shift patterns and not much more money. I've tried venturing into additional private work but that just seems like a lot of work work work and I'm not sure that's what my soul needs at this stage in my life. So I've started daydreaming...

I think I want excitement and adventure, something to look forward to to make the day to day more tolerable.

Has anyone bit the bullet and took a gap year to travel? How old were your kids. Did you leave them at home and have a years worth of bills covered, how did you do it? How much did you save, for how long?

I didn't have the opportunity to go travelling after uni or in my twenties like expected so I feel like I missed out. Can't bare the thought of waiting until I retire to do this.

Yes. God yes. I'm 57 but for a while in my 30s felt I'd missed out by not travelling more when younger and in my 40s toyed with the idea of back packing in Asia for the winter...but a career, a wife, then my own business, then elderly in laws...

So at 55 in retired, last year we bought a campervan and we go off monthly for a few days ticking off bucket list things (Geoff Hamilton's gardens as his influence changed my life). We have booked to go to France in the summer, trips to small cities in Britain in the diary....we still have mil to think about but my wife's got a brother and sister who can step in (and bloody should in my opinion). Next year will be Spain or southern France in the spring.

So yes we all think about it. But you need to pick the time and go for it

Sounds amazing! I won't have the luxury of being able to retire that early unfortunately. I need to make something happen or I'll go mad!

I still have a few years to make a plan and save up as I'll have to wait until my kids are old enough to be left as adults (say 18/19/20) and will suss out nearer the time a good time to go (after important exams or them going off to uni, etc). I feel that my employer would hopefully allow a career break as I've known quite a few others have done this.

Anyone planned for a years career break in a similar situation? When did you start saving/planning?

I absolutely feel this, yes, I've been wondering if it's just me. Thank you for posting! I'm mid 40s, son heading into yr 7 next yr, have been happily married for more than 20 years.

I'm thinking of taking some sabbatical time from work (very lucky that this might be an option), but I don't really know if it's a plan or just a fantasy. Obviously I could only go away for a couple of weeks at a time (and not right at the start of yr 7 either), but I feel like that + some time to learn / study might just avoid me reaching total burnout.

Yeah, boring burnout, like a slow dripping tap. It's a weird stage of life isn't it. I'm not rich but am comfortable and ok. Maybe I'm looking at middle age wrong and this coasting phase could be the start of something new. I feel like I've spent my younger years setting myself up for "freedom" so to speak and sorted a career out, and have now started to come out of the years where my kids physically need me to be there taking care of their basic needs 24/7 which is full on...and now I'm like who am I and what do I want next?