We Have 4 Kids and Live in an RV Full-Time — Here’s Why We’d Never Go Back

(This is a guest post from Jill at Let’s Travel Family)

Have you ever dreamed of hitting the road full-time and seeing all of North America? Being a parent doesn’t always seem to fit with that dream — but for our family, it fits perfectly.

Hi, I’m Jill, the blogger behind Let’s Travel Family, a site dedicated to helping families travel together with their kids instead of waiting for “someday.” Below, I’m answering the questions families ask us most about full-time RVing with kids.

How One Brutal Winter Turned Us Into Full-Time RVers

It started with one too many Minnesota winters. Tony and I began searching for places that could give our family more sunshine and more time outside — and that turned into an idea: why not take a long road trip and check out a few of those cities in person before committing to a move?

Then came the bigger idea: why not buy an RV and travel the country instead, and figure out where we wanted to land along the way?

That’s when we stumbled across websites and YouTube channels of families doing exactly that — not just road-tripping to scout a new home, but living the journey itself, full-time, kids and all. We were sold. Within three months, we’d sold most of our belongings, bought an RV, finished out our lease in the Twin Cities, and became a full-time RVing family.

Getting the Kids on Board (Literally)

Preparing our kids for full-time RV life turned out to be simpler than we expected. We included them in almost everything — the planning, the decision-making, even touring different RVs with us. They helped organize and sell our stuff on Craigslist and at one massive garage sale, and honestly, they were just as excited as we were.

One thing that made the transition easier: we’d already been homeschooling since our oldest was 2. With four kids already learning at home full-time, hitting the road wasn’t as big a leap as it might’ve been for a family pulling kids out of school. Still, it was a major change — especially saying goodbye to friends and our homeschool co-op. We worked hard to make that part feel positive instead of sad, doing things like:

• Encouraging our older two kids to exchange emails with friends
• Collecting addresses so we could send postcards along the way
• Giving each kid an iPad so they could message cousins, grandparents, and friends — and use it for schoolwork too

Here are the Hard Parts about Being a Digital Nomad Family

Now, living as a digital nomad family does have some bumps and hard parts. The first being ‘decision fatigue’. When you travel full-time, you are always having to have plan out where you will camp next, what sights you want to see, does it work within your budget, will there be friends for the kids to play with…..oh, and where will we grocery shop this week?

At first, these decisions did not seem TOO overwhelming….then came the decisions we had to make about homeschooling, parenting, meal planning, working online, what to do for Christmas, etc. You see, life still happens while traveling!

Then you add in all the decisions you need to make ABOUT traveling, and it can get a bit much at times.

In addition to making an abundance of decisions each day, you also need to keep in mind that living as a traveling RV family means that you have no extended family or friends with you to ‘take the kids’ for a bit. Finding babysitters while traveling can be difficult, so many of us become used to having date-nights with each other once the kids go to bed each night.

On the upside, once we began to connect with other full-time traveling families on the road, we started to build a bond and way to help each other out. Such as, switching off date nights and watching each other’s kids!

The Upside of Life on the Road

Becoming a digital nomad family has brought us closer than we’ve ever been. We eat almost every meal together — Dad included — and fill our days biking, hiking, swimming, shooting hoops, and playing mini-golf as a family. The kids are getting more time with Tony and me than they ever did back home, and honestly, we couldn’t be happier.

The financial flexibility has been just as life-changing. We’ve kayaked the Florida Keys with our kids, taken a trip to Disneyland, and checked off bucket list spots we never would have gotten to otherwise. Instead of rent or a mortgage, we budget for gas and campground fees — and when there’s room left over, we use it for something memorable, like riding the Maid of the Mist under Niagara Falls. Tony and I don’t make any more money than we did living in our sticks-n-bricks house in Minnesota. We just spend it differently, on making amazing memories every single day.

Finding community (rallies, community, friendships)

The single biggest game-changer for our family was finding our tribe. It took about six months of full-time RVing before we really felt it — but once we did, we knew we were in this lifestyle for the long haul.

Through Fulltime Families, we connected with other RVing families in their private Facebook groups. Then, once we landed in Florida for the winter, we started spotting FTF stickers on RVs around us and heard about an upcoming rally. Tony and I signed up on a whim — and during that first rally, we learned there was exactly one spot left for the next one two months out, so we grabbed that too.

We’ve now been to three rallies and made more friends than we can count. We just signed up for our fourth, and the kids are counting down the days. Our son Riley summed it up best: “Even if we can’t make it to Disney World this winter, at least we’ll make it to the Rally!”

Tony and I talk a lot about the friendships we’ve made on the road. It’s wild how quickly you can form a deep connection with families you’d never have crossed paths with back in Minnesota — it doesn’t matter if you share the same beliefs, income, or style, the connection is just there. I think it comes down to mindset: most of us chose this life because we wanted more time together as a family and more real memories. That shared “why” is what makes it so easy to become close friends, fast.

Dealing with naysayers (rude, mean people)

There will always be naysayers, but in all honesty, we don’t notice them often. I think the only times we’ve felt like people don’t support how we are living our lives is at a campground with many retired adults. They didn’t appreciate having young kids, who make loud noises, disrupting their day.

The thing about living the full-time RV life is that your house is on wheels! So we changed our plans and drove our ‘house’ to a different RV park. It’s that simple.

When we lived in a ‘sticks n bricks’, we couldn’t do that! We had to learn to get along with our neighbors and tough it out.

We have found that being FLEXIBLE is one of the best things we can do in this lifestyle.

Tips for others who want to get started RVing with their kids full-time

Life will throw you curveballs, no matter how you live it. Traveling full-time with kids is no different. Being FLEXIBLE and learning to bend and sway with change, will help your family out SO much.

Not only being flexible, but being open to changing the direction of things. For example, when we first started traveling we wanted to see ALL our bucket list destinations! Then we realized that we barely had time to digest each place before we moved on to the next one….and all by ourselves.

Now, we have slowed down a bit in our travels and are intentional with meeting up with friends along the way. We still look ahead and plan on visiting those exciting places, but we spread it out a bit and try to connect with other families along the way.

If you want to start RVing with your kids full-time, then my tip to you is to reach out to others who do this! Connect with me on Let’s Travel Family or DM me on Instagram, I’d be happy to help answer your questions. Join Fulltime Families and see about getting to a rally early on.

You got this! Life is worth living, and if your dream is to travel more and find an even better connection with your kids then RV living might be perfect for your family!
-Jill Greising-Murschel

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