Family Gap Year: Traveling the World with My 8 Year Old

I am travel obsessed. The more I travel, the more I want to travel. In 2004, I set off on a round the world (RTW) trip, but got ‘stuck’ in India with my now husband. Ever since my first attempt at traveling the world, I have ached to try again. This desire to have a family gap year has only gotten stronger as my son has grown each year.

We travel a ton as it is, but it never feels like enough. Each summer we take 4-6 weeks to travel, just the two of us, and I am never ready for it to end. We have spent time in London, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Borneo and all over the western US visiting national parks.

This past year was a little rough for my son at school, so we began entertaining the idea of taking the next school year off to travel. The seed was planted.

Soon I realized that 3 back to back trips scheduled in the first weeks of school would take my son away for a month. It felt like the perfect opportunity to extend it further and just take the whole year off.

Reading that back, I realize my extreme logic! You broke your toe, so we cut the whole leg off! I know, I’m crazy! This is what happens when you become obsessed with travel.

The positives for doing it now – my son is in 2nd grade which is a great age to travel with, an age I can still assist with homeschooling and he still wants to hang out with me! I’m sold.

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