Diapers, bottles, and toddler tantrums. Not in a brick and mortar house, but in an RV. That’s basically our daily life. And in between those diapers, my husband and I juggle work. A day in the life of a digital nomad family is not so glamorous, but it’s totally worth all the hustling!
We are a family of four, with a toddler and a newborn baby. My husband and I work completely independent of location. We work remotely as a travel blogger, freelance copywriter, and IT-developer. This freedom allows us to be with our kids 24/7 and travel through Europe.
Cycling on the Algarve Coast, Portugal
Getting out of the 9-to-5 rat race
Before we started traveling full time, we were living the ‘normal’ suburban life, with a house, job, and the occasional two-week holiday. We got more and more frustrated with this life, so we decided to make a few drastic changes.
In the summer of 2015, we sold our house and quit our day jobs, ready to live a location-independent lifestyle with our then nine-month-old son. We traveled through Belgium, France, Spain, and Portugal in our RV, moving from campsite to campsite.
Traveling with little kids
Our son is now a very busy two-year-old, and he has a little sister, Evi, who’s three months old. I’m writing this blog post in Switzerland, where we’re staying with family, and we’ll leave with our RV in a few weeks when the weather is sunnier in Europe.
Mulder family in Switzerland
Lots of people ask me what a typical day in our life looks like. They expect a 100% holiday, but they cannot be more wrong! Even though we see gorgeous places, we’re a rather normal family.
Our RV is our home. It’s a bit small, compared to regular family houses, but we love it—it’s cozy. We travel slow, staying at the same campsite for four to 10 weeks. This is necessary for traveling indefinitely with kids. They need time just to be kids and play, and we as parents need time to work. This is where it stops being a 24/7 holiday.
Slow mornings
There is, however, one important thing that does make it feel as if we’re on a holiday. We never set the alarm. Our kids wake us up every morning, and they make us proud being such good sleepers.
At a campsite in Belgium
Our days start around 8 am. We have breakfast together. My husband and I try not to check in on our laptops yet, but we sometimes cannot resist. That’s definitely the downside of working remotely, but nothing is perfect.
Working and playing
After breakfast and cleaning up, one of us gets to work, and the other takes care of the kids. Our baby, Evi, still sleeps a lot. Thankfully, she doesn’t mind sleeping in the carrier once in a while, so she can easily go with us on a short sightseeing or hiking trip.
Meeting a rooster in Spain
Nap time equals work time
After we have lunch, our toddler goes to bed for his nap. He still sleeps around three hours every afternoon. Baby Evi often sleeps the entire afternoon as well. Great timing right? This gives us the opportunity to work our asses off.
Quality time as a family
When the kids wake up, we do things together, like going to the store, a bit of sightseeing, or just some relaxing and playing. In the evening, when both children are asleep (again), we work some more or watch a movie.
Spectacular, right?!
Sightseeing with baby and toddler
Once every four or five days, we take the day off to do some sightseeing together. We go to the park, visit a castle or a little village, a museum, or go on a hike.
Where suburban kids go to the same playground in their hometown for years, our toddler has seen playgrounds in many European countries. The best was in Benalmàdena, Spain. There was a beautiful park with a petting zoo where animals such as rabbits and chickens walked around freely. It had several playgrounds for both little and older kids. He loved playing there!
A not-so-typical toddler life
Our daily life is very similar to a regular life of families living in brick and mortar houses. The main difference is how we spend our free time. We don’t go to the nearby zoo; we visit zoos all over Europe. When he’s of school age, we plan to road school.
In his short life, our son has been to amazing places. We’ve gone hiking along the beautiful coast of the Algarve, in Portugal, and in the hills of Switzerland. We’ve visited castles all around Europe, such as the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. We don’t like big cities, so we mostly visit smaller towns, nature parks, and beaches. For example, Trujillo, in the west of Spain is such a lovely place, but most tourists only go to cities like Seville and Barcelona.
For us, this is ‘normal’ life, and we wouldn’t want it any other way! Digital Nomad with Kids
A Day in the Life of a Travel Blogger: Digital Nomad with Kids | https://t.co/g8yAugm3u2 https://t.co/OQZlGsQapc
— Uncharted101.com (@Uncharted1o1) April 19, 2017
