4 kids world tour year

Anyone who is a parent, or anyone who hasn't seen close friends since before Covid, will know the excitement of seeing those important people in their lives after such a long break. So I am really looking forward to our 3 days in London. But I am starting to get anxious, although maybe I shouldn't be, about going home after London and a couple of days at a wedding.

Am I homesick? Well certainly a bit, because despite getting used to not showering for a week (Amazon) or two ( Mongolia), I really do prefer being clean, and the relaxation that comes with a good shower. But of course there are plenty of places where you can get a good shower. I could write the same about beds ( in Asia too hard) , in Mongolia ( too short). The same goes for wearing clothes for several days. I do miss my comfort foods like pasta and chilli con carne, I do enjoy good wines. All of that is available in many places. But strangely I do miss my home, maybe because with Flo I transformed it into a modern living space, but actually I think I miss it because its a comfort zone for the kids, and maybe us adults too, and I have no doubt that the kids need to go home and re-engage with their friends and benefit from the social aspects of school.  So I think strange as it may sound I am homesick on their behalf.

The anxiety I think we all have to some extent is will we fit in again? Will we be happy being in one place? Will we want to escape the restrictions of a regular lifestyle? As Donald Rumsford famously said. "These are the known unknowns, but there are unknown unknowns." 

I certainly know that what we did in the last year, we could do it again, but we can't do it forever. It wouldn't be fair to the kids, and at some point, we could easily break under the strain of being 24×7×365 together without any break, without any private space, without other anchors for the kids.

I know kids will benefit hugely from this past year .  Seeing nature is better than any David Attenborough film, and experiencing other cultures 1st hand will ensure a positive attitude to those who are "different." I am hopeful that they are more sturdy and robust, for example the first experiences of markets in Africa, they found scary, but now looking back they tell us that was really nothing.and when a heavily armed Brazilian anti-drug squad unexpectedly boarded our Amazon ferry, they were not at all phased by the experience. I see that they are more flexible. For example, they are prepared to try all sorts of food, and they take for granted thar travelling often involves tiring journeys or petty annoyances. But they know its all worth it, and they know they can make friends on a hilltop in Rwanda or the seaside in Colombia. They have grown accustomed to change, and so it doesn't throw them off track. They have significantly  reduced the shyness everyone has and can now start a conversation with adults and children alike, even if they don't understand a word of the other person's language. They respect differences rather than being disrespectful, inflexible, or snobbish. In total, they have built a platform for a more enlightened and engaging future.

So we have done it. We made it back in one piece. Two worrying hospitalisations in India for the boys. I was sometimes worried to be out of reach of sophisticated heathcare, but other than cuts bruises and insect bites, nothing major to report. We lost some things like 2 budget mobile phones, but we were never robbed or threatened with violence. Even in Peru, where we had to change our route because of political violence, we were not unsettled since we calmly changed plans.

If we managed the past crazy year, it's curious to be nervous about normality, but maybe Flo has the right idea. Let's create a new normal.  For example, if we lived with a tiny number of clothes/gadgets/utensils for a year, why go fully back to the old ways? We didn't watch TV all year, so I have cancelled our TV subscription, and our house is likely to change and add some of the aesthetic styles we have encountered. Etc, Etc (Insider joke, thanks to Yul Brynner).  So maybe that's the landing zone, the new normal 😀. Read more