Unseen Truths Behind Our Freedom Lifestyle

Life on the road with two kids, twelve homes, and zero filters.

I had just spent the past 72 hours deep in research mode, hunting down the perfect place to stay on our upcoming trip to Vietnam.

I’d mapped out the cities, chosen the neighbourhoods that felt right for our little family of four, and built a short list from dozens of options across Booking.com, Agoda, and Airbnb.

From thirty places, I narrowed it to six contenders for our first stop.

Flynn and I combed through each one, double-checking all the must-haves that we needed to live comfortably.

We even spent over an hour with Airbnb support negotiating a price match and fine-tuning the details.

It was hours and hours of work.

Then the next morning, I woke up to find our top two choices… gone.

Booked overnight.

I burst into tears.

Not just out of frustration, but from the weight of having to start again. The wasted time. The disappointment.

The knowing we’d have to settle for something that wasn’t quite right.

This wasn’t the laptop-on-the-beach lifestyle that social media promised.

This was the part no one talks about.

This was real life.

And honestly? Days like this are more common than you'd think.

It is so easy to romanticize a life seen online that has not been lived firsthand.

So easy to believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, on the side filled with freedom, travel and palm trees.

Of the lives imagined in journal margins, Pinterest boards, and daydreams.

And to be real, this life is pretty amazing.

There are many days I wake up, still stunned that this gets to be our life.

But in keeping with my deeply rooted theme of transparency, I wanted to show you the parts you don’t always see.

To bring you in on the full spectrum of experiences that create a life.

For you to see some of the unseen things you might not know just by reading my diaries or scrolling through a curated Instagram page.

So the gate is open for you to see life on our side of the fence.

Here are the unfiltered truths from living our version of freedom.

The Biggest Pain in Ass

As a nomad family, we’ve chosen not to root ourselves to any one location for now.

In fact, we’ve moved homes 12 times in the last year.

And moving? It’s our least favorite part.

Imagine folding every single piece of clothing you own for yourself, your partner and your kids.

Carefully arranging it so it all fits into suitcases because that’s all the space you have.

Putting your shampoo, toiletries and medicines into their own zip lock bags, wrapping up charging cords and gathering up all the colorful markers that have rolled under the couch.

Then there is the clean up, because the last thing we want is a poor Airbnb review.

It’s an entire top to bottom home tidy that we won’t even get to enjoy.

We empty the fridge, sweep the floor and wipe the counters.

Then there is the checking and rechecking, obsessively opening and closing every drawer and cupboard before we leave, hoping that nothing gets left behind.

Every move costs us two full days: one to prep and pack, and one to relocate and settle in.

Then there’s that awkward 4-5 hour gap between checkout and check-in that coincides perfectly with lunch and nap time.

And all of this happens while managing the emotions of our two small kids who are equally as excited by and stressed out by losing one home and gaining another.

So far this year, we have lost 24 days to moving.

And before we hit our one-year nomad anniversary, we’ll sleep in four more homes as we make our way to Bali.

Yes, we’ve become efficient.
Yes, we’ve built systems and roles.

But even now, moving is still a pain in the ass.

Nobody shows that part on Instagram.

Well, That’s Odd.

While we’re talking about Airbnbs, let’s talk about the quirks of living in homes that aren’t yours.

It’s not set up for our stuff and our routines and sometimes, you just have to laugh at the weird inconveniences that come with it.

I’ll tell you a couple of our favorites.

Like the house with no WiFi in the bathroom. I’ll let you figure out why that sucked. 🚽🤣

Or the basement suite where dog hair blew through the vents every time the upstairs tenants turned on their heat…

…right into our kitchen. I can’t tell you how many meals we cooked that had unwanted dog hair in them.

We once stayed somewhere with a “super efficient” washer-dryer combo. It ran one cycle in… 8 hours and 49 minutes.

I documented this insanity on Instagram.

Some places lost power several times a day.

And I can’t forget about our last home that was so small that there was only room for 3 people to sit down and eat together at the table.

We either had to make a 3 chair bench and squish together or someone had to eat standing.

And the place we’re in now?

Only enough forks for 2 meals.

Little things that, as a whole, aren’t that big of a deal, but act as a subtle reminder that there really is no place like home - a real home, that’s ours.

Read: Is a Home Base Worth Giving Up Full-Time Travel?

We’re Doing It With Kids

It takes a certain level of crazy to do this nomad life with kids.

When it was just Flynn and me, all we needed was WiFi, a clean place, and a bed.

Now, there is so much more to think about.

• Is there a hospital nearby?

• Is the area walkable if we don’t have a car?

• Are there restaurants nearby? Or a kitchen if there aren’t any?

• Do we have access to a grocery store?

• Are these like the pull-ups we have at home? (And what the heck does my kid weigh in kilograms?!)

• Is this area safe for families and kids?

• Can we walk to the beach?

• Where is the closest gym?

• Does it have two bedrooms so the kids can nap separately?

• Is there a pool? (We live in the pool when we travel)

The list goes on.

The protective instinct in us as parents is always searching for safety and security, but there is a quiet uncertainty in not knowing where your family will be sleeping in 6 months from now.

I know it always works out and as time goes on, I’ve learned to release the need for certainty and control.

To let go and enjoy. To roll with it and trust the process.

We signed up for this life.
Now we get to live it.

Living Without Community

Sometimes we win and we land somewhere that instantly feels like home.

Panama was one of those places.

Our first building was full of kids and other nomad families.

Our second had a lovely couple that our kids came to call their “Panama grandparents”.

But in the Dominican Republic and Qualicum Beach?

We felt isolated.

Sometimes this life as a nomad family can feel lonely.

There seems to be two types of people we meet as we travel.

1. Retired expats, usually in their 60s-80s. While we love chatting with them poolside, we don’t always find friendships.

2. Families our age that are on week-long trips and escaping from their lives back home, but they never stick around.

We often find ourselves caught in the in-between - too young for the retirees, too rooted for the vacationers.

And sometimes, we go weeks without deeper conversations or friends for our kids to play with.

After three extended trips, we’ve realized this:

If we want community, we have to seek it out.

Flynn’s started joining local Facebook and world schooling groups to connect with other traveling families

He’s way more outgoing than I am and because of that, he’s helped bring some truly wonderful people into our little nomad bubble.

We’re starting to be more intentional about this, starting with our next trip.

We’ll be in Sanur, Bali, a known hub for world schooling families like ours and we are staying there for a month.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

To Be Continued…

I had planned to make this one diary entry, but there’s more to say.

Four more truths to share.

So in Part 2, I’ll take you even deeper into the unseen parts of this lifestyle, including:

• The perfect grocery shopping problem

• A part-time job I didn’t expect

• Hiccups in staying healthy

• Missing my husband… even though we’re together 24/7

Read it here:

Unseen Truths Behind Our Freedom Lifestyle (Part 2)

I want to be clear: I’m not sharing this to complain.

I love this life. I wake up and choose it again every single day.

To quote a Justin Bieber song, my purpose in sharing is to show you:

The grass ain't always greener on the other side
It's green where you water it

So I’ve learned to become the metaphorical watering can.

I take it with me wherever I go and with it, make wherever we land just a little greener.

Tanessa

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Want to know how we reached financial independence at 33, retired at 35, and now travel the world with our kids?

We teach exactly how in our program: The Cash Flow Investor.

Click here to check it out.