In the collective imagination, the digital nomad is a merry goguette who travels alone, only accompanied by his computer. We think of the backpacker version of the freelancer, who chooses his place of life according to his moods and rolls his bump with his van.
There is also the senior executive version, a digital nomad who rents a villa on Airbnb in a resort for several months and combines vacation and work.
Now there’s a new kind of digital nomad, as the site of the BBC : the one who travels with family. Joel Young, 38, is one of them. This voice actor who runs his own remote production company, and his wife, Jenna, 39, spend up to six months of the year traveling across the United States with their three home-schooled sons, aged 8 at 14. His motivation? “To give her children an increased cultural awareness as well as a different type of learning experience.” Finally, this lifestyle choice seems to combine the new possibilities of teleworking and the old adage that travel shapes youth. Sarah Stocking, of Lonely Planet, adds that the pandemic has allowed many parents to test homeschooling, to see what worked and what didn’t.
But beware: for children, the nomadic way of life, which can seem very rewarding in the eyes of their parents, can be destabilizing. They lose their geographical roots, their habits and their social circle. Thus, underlines the BBC website, “understanding the potential pitfalls of an itinerant lifestyle is key to harnessing its benefits”. Child development expert Dr. Jody LeVos warns:
“Young children especially need a sense of familiarity. Creating this can be a challenge if the time zone, environment and social contacts change.”
Lucy Alexandra Spencer, a traveling teacher and director of her tutoring business, adds that school-aged children need at least one parent to be dedicated full-time to their education, or a traveling teacher to travel with them, to prevent them from falling behind in their learning. A whole organization!
Did you go abroad to live with your family? How was this experience? How did you prepare? What advice would you have liked to have had before departure? Tell us about your experience by writing to us at [email protected] and we will publish your testimony.