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Everything is more complicated with kids; you figured that out within about five minutes of becoming a parent! Nowhere does that become more apparent than on the brink of major life change.

The decision to move toward a location independent lifestyle is simple enough; it’s the ensuing details that many find overwhelming. Add kids to the mix and those details seem to breed like rabbits, I know, I’ve been there and I’m still there!

I’m here to tell you to take a deep breath, it’s not an insurmountable task. You CAN live your dreams, take your kids, and it will be the adventure of a lifetime. We did it; let me show you how:

1. Remember the Seven P’s

The best gift my Uncle Dick ever gave me:

The 7 P’s: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

It applies to just about everything in life and certainly to going nomad with a family. Being a responsible parent means making your child’s health and welfare top priority, which means carefully attending to the details.

Of course you can’t prepare for everything, there will always be unexpected difficulties, but you’ll reduce those significantly by taking the time to heed Uncle Dick.

2. Set a Date

Everyone dreams of “someday” and in the blink of an eye you’re ninety-three. The difference between the “doers” and the “talkers” is commitment. Someday never comes.  October 15, 2010 does.

You have a dream. You want it badly. Set a date and make it happen. Go one step further, set a date and then tell your friends. Get REALLY hardcore and set a date, tell your friends, then make a countdown to launch calendar for your kids, even if it has 416 squares on it, like ours did!

Your kids will become your biggest cheerleaders and an active part of the pre-launch sequence!

3. Make a List, Check It (More Than) Twice

Central to the 7 P’s are checklists. For us, this meant two years of monthly checklists to prepare for our 2008 launch.

When we first set the date we had a house, two cars, and fifteen years worth of life accumulated in two barns. The children were aged 2.5 through 8.5, one was still in diapers, only two could ride bicycles and two years seemed like an eternity.

What was on the checklists: Everything.

• Gear to be procured
• Lists of companies to contact about sponsorships (gear gets expensive for six!)
• Healthcare and immunization schedules
• Educational needs
• Downsizing schedules
• Business development milestones
• Home renovation needs (so we could sell it!)
• About a million other little things

I had a binder with tabbed dividers to track our progress and make sure we’d covered all the bases. I checked the lists every single day and ticked items off by the week and month as we moved toward our new life.

4. Get Help, Find a Community

My brother, who circumnavigated over a five year period, drove home the necessity of this. Just weeks before our launch I confessed my concern that a lot of the feedback we were getting was, if not outright negative, a little “concerned,” to say the least. Lots of people just didn’t ‘get it’ and some thought we were quite nuts.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “You’re fine; right where you want to be. If everyone who’s never done anything thinks you’re crazy, that’s perfect. It’s when the people who HAVE ‘been there, done that’ think you’re nuts that you need to worry.”

Of course, he’s absolutely right. What I learned was that it’s important to surround yourself with a few people who HAVE jumped out of the boat and survived so that, on the days when it seems impossible, you have a cheerleader!

Find a few families to inspire you, follow their websites and send them an e-mail. Before you know it you’ll have virtual friends all over the planet and you won’t be the only “weird” people you know!

5. Just DO It Already

Do it. Do it now. If you have a big dream, chase it hard and stop wasting time; I beg you!  Life waits for no man.  Kids grow up faster than you can imagine.  Health and wealth and breath are fleeting; don’t miss a moment’s opportunity. Live life YOUR way.

Image credit: Rachel Denning

As a person who is seeking, or already living, a location independent lifestyle, you’ve surely dreamt of a life filled with adventures. Perhaps sailing ’round the world, taking an extended trip to Asia or biking across Europe.

Then reality hits: your dreams are derailed by one ever present fact- you have children.

The idea of blending travel with children may seem daunting when you consider the requirements of your ideal adventure- passports, visas, sleeping accommodations, bikes, luggage- multiplied by each child.

But the truth is, more and more parents are opting to make their families location independent, despite the perceived (and sometimes very real) difficulties it may entail.

From year long sailing escapades, to 5,000 mile biking excursions across Europe and Africa, to six week road trips through Central America, with children ranging from newborn to teenagers, parents worldwide are finding it completely possible to “have their kids and take them too.”

As Timothy Ferris says in his book The Four Hour Work Week (a must read for any LIP):

Far from being a reason not to travel and seek adventure, children are perhaps THE best reason of all to do both.

Seeking Adventure Together Creates Family Unity

Our family began seeking adventure together in 2007 when our oldest was 4 and the youngest of our four children was only 3 months old.

As a result of our experiences, the little things as well as the monumental journeys, our family enjoys a special closeness. There is a unity that develops as you share mind-and-skill expanding escapades.  Doing fabulous things and hard things builds team spirit and a belief that together we can meet any challenge.

While our children have made friends all over the globe, their most constant companions have been one another. They’ve learned to be their own best friends.

Though we have our families’ support, for the most part, my husband and I have to rely on each other to turn our dreams of adventure into reality, resulting in greater cooperation and unity in our marriage.

Our shared, extremely unique, experiences with each other have created a bond that binds and defines our family. Our adventures are a big part of our family identity.

Seeking Adventure Generates Lifetime Memories

“Remember when…” is one  of our children’s favorite openers as we reminisce together about the beach we visited, the friends we met, the food we tried or the ‘bad’ experience that turned out all right.

There’s no toy, gadget or material gizmo that could match the memories we’ve created as a family. While we may not own a lot of “stuff,” what we do have: the time to build relationships and memories, is of far greater, and more lasting value.

My daughter, now nearly eight, still remembers her ‘one day’ friend in Mexico who taught her how to swim when she was four and the day when she, mommy and daddy all went bungee jumping.

My six year old son recalls with enthusiasm the ‘bat cave’ we explored in the Dominican Republic and the euphoria of our dolphin excursion in Panama.

Adventures as a family provide some of the greatest and most life changing experiences; making memories that you and your children will cherish for a lifetime.

Seeking Adventure Builds Confidence And Creates Growth

It’s been said that some people have ten years of experience, while others have one year of experience, repeated ten times.

Personal growth comes through new experience. Just as a baby grows and builds confidence through each new sight, sound and skill mastered, we as adults can join with our children and experience similar development as we adventure together.

Seeking out new experiences as a family forces everyone, young and old, out of their comfort zones and into new territory that results in personal growth and team development.

We’ve seen our children’s confidence and skills, not to mention our own, sky-rocket  as a result of adventures such as:

• Bungee jumping in Costa Rica
• Border crossings
• Exposure to new cuisine
• Learning a new language
• Hiking (with little legs) to remote beaches
• Driving a motorcycle
• Coming face to face with extreme poverty and disease
• Learning to let go and have ‘freedom from possessions’

If you’ve thought about pursuing your dreams of adventure but have hesitated because of your little, or not so little, ones perhaps it’s time to reconsider the plausibility and possibility of tackling such a feat.  Let your children become the catalyst instead of the impediment to your dreams; you may discover it’s best thing that has ever happened to your family.

Are you already location independent with children?  Share some of the best experiences you’ve had as a family and what it is that keeps you chasing your dreams together.

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We first found out we were going to be parents when we were in South Africa last year…it was a *huge* surprise, not least of all because we’d pretty much decided (and announced to the world) that we didn’t want to have our own children but would rather adopt some time in the future.

I’ll be honest with you, when we first found out that I was pregnant, one of the last things we wanted to do was head back to the UK – after all, our initial goal in becoming location independent was to find somewhere else in the world we wanted to call home – and the UK was not on that shortlist.

However we headed back to the UK when I was 4 months pregnant and settled back into the house we usually rent out…planning all along to hit the road again at some point, but secretly wondering if things would all change when we had the baby.

They didn’t and now, with Mali being 4.5 months old, we’re hitting the road again. This series – “Our Journey” will follow our experience of being nomadic location independent parents with a young baby…we hope you enjoy the ride, we certainly intend to!