Image by Mr. Ducke
Is a location independent lifestyle possible with children? The answer is an emphatic “YES”!
How do I know this? Because we are and so are lots of others.
A common misconception about location independence is that it must involve travel and/or nomadism. But our concept of location independent has evolved to mean the ability to live and work from anywhere *you* choose…So that could be halfway round the globe, a coffee shop down the road or simply from the comfort of your own home.
The key is choice and the freedom to choose so being location independent doesn’t have to mean a lifestyle of travel – but simply that you can, if you want to…
For example, you’ve got the entrepreneurial parents who are technically location independent but aren’t nomadic. People like:
Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation runs her home-based coaching business and could, if she wanted, travel the world but chooses instead to stay home with her husband and 3 gorgeous children.
Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz runs her home-based marketing business and has done a spot of continent hopping recently with husband Jamie and little boy Jack before heading to Canada where they currently live.
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits is a writer and blogger with 6 kids. Once again he could technically run his business from anywhere but instead chooses to live on the island of Guam (although will be moving to San Francisco in 2010).
Then you’ve got the entrepreneurial parents who are nomadic and run their businesses via the internet from wherever they choose around the world. People like:
Julie Gibbons of PeopleMaps runs her online-based personality profiling business with her husband Martine and travels almost full-time with her family.
Jenn & Tony Miller of the Edventure Project are an engineer/developer and freelance writer respectively who travel nomadically on bikes with their 4 kids.
And of course you’ve got nomadic families who don’t necessarily support themselves financially with online or location independent businesses but finance their travels by other means:
Jeanne Dee of Soultravelers3 travels for several months in an RV with her husband and 8 year old daughter and spend winters in one chosen place. They finance their travels through investments.
The common factor is that all of the above types of location independence require one thing: an open mind! There is no wrong nor right way to be location independent – and that’s one of the key messages we’d like to convey with this site.
Some location independent parents will do things one way, others another way. Neither one is right nor wrong…what’s right is what works for you.
Some things you will want to consider however, if becoming a location independent parent is your goal:
- Building an online business that you can run from anywhere or creating another type of income which supports your desired lifestyle.
- Living with a “no stuff” mentality (not necessarily as minimalists but certainly with less than your average household) since this lifestyle is about being flexible and agile enough to adapt to whatever circumstances you need or want to adapt to.
- Being tech savvy enough to not only run your business online but run your life online.
- The implications, impact and options you have as parents to location independent children.
One of the primary aims of this site is to help inform, inspire and educate you in each of the above areas to enable you to become location independent parents…whatever that means for you!
I love this post!
In 2002, my now-husband and I traveled the U.S. (and a little bit of Canada) in a converted school bus. We met SO MANY PEOPLE who lived at least part-time, if not full-time, on the road. They were extremely happy, open people with a sense of adventure and bon vivant, and many of them had families!
Our perspective? What a GREAT way to teach kids experientially early on that they can live however they choose! If that’s a little house with a white picket fence, great! If that’s a mega-motorhome with slideouts and a car in tow behind, fabulous! And anything else in between works, too.
We loved the idea of traveling with kids, showing them the world. Thanks for showing your readers that there are lots of options!
As a mother of older children, 7 and 11, I’m eager to follow this conversation and see where it goes. I love the idea of location independence which then gives families the freedom to travel and live all over, but as kids get older, their social and education needs change, which adds another layer of complexity.
We’re working on it. Eager to see how others are going it too.