I dunno. Seems a little like a "boundary problem", and a little like "bored housewife buying into the idea of shabby chic life". I wonder if you have some sort of woodland scandinavian cabin with peeling paint, and a couple of sheepskins/ reindeer fleeces scattered on rickety benches in mind.
Life is not like that. Holidays are like that. It is very aspirational, but have very little to do with real life, or preparation for real life, I would say.
If you cant live the life you want, without becoming a hermit "dhs work permitting" is it really you? Must you really be without internet to stay off line?
Is it so hard to teach your children appreciation of nature and the simple life (which is not that simple actually) alongside modern life?
I do get the yearning for a different life.
But you cant turn the clock back, and you cant disadvantage your children just because you have been reading too many aspirational magazines and fancy something that is for most people unobtainable today. Especially if you want to live in the uk still.
My dads mate did something quite similar some 30 years ago. He was working in a Theater in Oslo, and suddenly he upped sticks and bought a small farm in the North of Norway. It is organic, he grows potatoes and carrots. They do have a car. A rickety old Wolkswagon van (campervan style, it is blue even), he needs it to deliver his produce. And for his wife to go to work. The only way they can "live the dream" is for her to work in the nearby town. He farms, she works. Their potatoes are divine, and their carrots totally yummy. He also does woodcarvings, and made a gorgeous hand made little chair for my son when he was just a year old. They also have goats on the farm, and he makes cheese. He does not believe in "paint" even, so refuse to treat any of his outbuildings with "this poison". He also goes fishing a lot, and bring my dad not just goat meat for the freezer, but trout and salmon and arctic char. It is just the way he is. He loves his life. They have no children.
A friend of mine grew up on the farm next to his. It is all very remote. She is an accountant. She works in town. She goes home every other weekend. She loves nature, she goes hiking at every opportunity. She lives in a small one bed flat, I would say she has a very simple life. She works, and enjoys the outdoors. She has no children.
Another friend of mine also works in town, but has her own little wooden cottage on the nearby island of Senja She goes there at every opportunity. Spends all summer there. She has no electricity, no gas, no running water (there is a well outside her cottage), she has an outdoors "hole in the ground toilet". She has a gas cooker with a gas flask connector, and a wood stove. She invites friends to visit, and we cook on bonfires, chat, eat, go hiking, etc.
It is a bit colder in winter, but she still goes there, as it is great for cross country skiing. It is harder to get water, as the well is usually snowed in and frozen over when she gets there.
Thinking about it, none of my friends that live this type of life have children!
The rest of us, are constrained by having to earn a certain amount to afford bringing up our kids. This means
We also had a cottage when I grew up. Summer holidays in Norway are from 21 june to 21 August (give our take a few days) so we would spend the entire summer at the cottage (and also Easter holidays). It was in the woods, but walking distance to the beach, along a path by the river. (not accessible by car, we had to park 30 minutes walk away - in winter we had to ski to get to the cottage) The nearest shop an hours drive away. We also had no electricity, no running water. We cooked on the open wood fire. We had candles for light, and a few portable gas lanterns. Mum had to heat water for me to have a wash every evening. I flanneled, rather than showered, and had my hair washed in a bucket, rinsed with a jug. Our toilet was also outside in an outbuilding, a "hole in the ground" sort of affair.
Could your solution be to find a place to have a cottage such as this, and get your "fix" for holidays and weekends?
This is sort of what we do, when combining life in London (where we still take the kids hiking and cycling) with our holidays in the north of Norway (where we hike for days through the mountains, and just explore the outdoors) I would say our kids are pretty healthy and balanced.
Living this sort of life full time, I honestly dont think it would work for most people today, not when they have jobs that is not easily combined with this type of life.