Last Updated: June 27, 2020
It’s been a few months now since we abruptly arrived back from Mexico due to the Covid-19 pandemic and we’re still in the UK at this moment. A lot has happened in these last few months, but at the same time, nothing has happened!
When we read the last post and how worried we were about the kids getting ill we almost feel silly now looking back, even though it was pretty concerning at the time. Having said that, the pandemic is still having a detrimental impact across the world.
So our perspective has shifted somewhat over the last few months from being concerned in the first instance for our children and families health to now being more concerned about our elderly family and friends, the health services, peoples mental health, the economy and the world community as a whole.
A Spring and Summer not as we planned…
It’s safe to say the pretty much the entire world could write that heading above and everyone’s circumstances have changed dramatically over the last few months. For us there are a number of elements that we were actually already used to that maybe others weren’t.
In the UK all the schools shut and parents were having to get used to being with there kids all the time, something we had already been accustomed to long before the pandemic.
But on the flip side it hit us harder than most in the sense of being unable to move around. The kids in particular found this extremely strange to begin with.
Kids Quote: “So are we staying here forever now? Why aren’t we going to any new houses anymore? When can we next go on a plane?”
Aden, Age 3
We arrived back in the UK on the exact day a lockdown began, so it was so surreal coming back then heading straight to a house without seeing any friends and family after being away for a long period.
We were extremely lucky to be able to find temporary, but long term accommodation via family and so were able to walk straight into a house when we arrived. We thought we would only be there a few weeks, but we’re still here moths later.
But we felt very fortunate to have this place during lockdown. We have a small concrete back yard, which gave us a bit of fresh air. And also a green space with a basketball court within a 5 minute walk. So all in all we felt quite blessed with our circumstances.
We’ve tried to make the most of the rest bite and being static for a while and we actually enjoyed the lockdown in many ways. We were able to rest and really recharge, which we haven’t done for a long time. And with being static we were able to re-visit some old past times we had been unable to do whilst on the go.
We ordered our eldest a guitar and he has restarted having lessons online. I also managed to get hold of my electric drum kit, which was being stored by family, my main love before travelling!
Nadia has also been as creative as ever and grew hundreds of tomatoes from the seeds collected from one packet of tomatoes bought on our first shop. She’s managed to make the small back yard a green space with purchasing many plant posts and growing various plants. And has been baking, cooking and crafting like there’s not tomorrow!
Future Travel after the Pandemic?
Still, we continue to dream of travelling again. When we first came back I predicted we would be able to travel again in a few short months, but we are still no where near it. Things are progressing in the world, but we’ve resigned ourselves to not going abroad again until at least 2021.
This really bums us out thinking about it sometimes, our Round the World family trip has essentially come to an abrupt end it appears as our window that we had to play with is getting smaller and smaller.
But we’re trying to turn it on it’s head into a positive.
The downtime has meant we’ve been able to rethink things. It’s given us a chance to lay some foundations down work-wise and try to come up with a few alternative plans. It’s also put some things in perspective and made us rethink our whole life plan, which was already pretty loose.
Should we ever stop travelling once we can again?
This has been a question we’ve toyed with over the last few months. The main factor in this are the kids. If it were just me and Nadia the answer would be a simple, ‘let’s just travel forever’. But with the kids, the decision is harder.
We need to consider their wants and needs. We had originally planned to come back from our round the world trip before our eldest went into secondary school. But now, after seeing the benefits of travel, we’re not so sure it is the right thing to do.
But there are major draw backs with long term travel. It’s not all rainbows, sandy beaches and amazing stories. Our main concern is the kids social skills.
They spend the majority of the time hanging out with their mum and dad, and although we like to think of ourselves as pretty hip parents, it’s not most older kids dream to do this!
The lack of interaction with other kids severely worries us. And the pandemic has only made this worse.
We had been trying to rectify this by changing our travel style. The first year of our round the world trip we moved so fast and whilst we prioritised ensuring the kids interacted with others it was always on a short term basis. So we decided to slow down massively for our Latin America tour. Starting in Mexico at a World Schooling Community, staying for a month, which really worked well.
We were still able to see great sites and do amazing activities, but the kids also had a foundation and consistent friends and were able to ditch us for the day if they wanted.
We wanted to try to continue this sort of travel with a bit of a rejig, but coronavirus soon ended that.
But is this the right thing moving forward? Maybe… we’re still not sure. But we need to get the pandemic over with first, then we’ll go from there…