Nomadic Life with Children Can Be Easy

December 18, 2011 Katja Presnal

Nomadic Life with Children Can Be Easy

After the initial shock when we told our children we are moving to Sweden, they immediately knew what to do. They know the drill, and they started getting ready for move sooner than we did. We still had our everyday work to go to, clients to take care of, blog posts to write. Life didn’t and couldn’t change in an instant. While our children still had their school play to get ready for, homework to do and their everyday chores to take care of, they were able to get started with the physical process of moving immediately.

Start Traveling With Children When They Are Young – It Will Become a Second Nature

Children are so adaptive, or maybe it is just our children, the nomads of the world, who have been dragged around the world since they were mere weeks old, and who got passports under the age of two weeks and all traveled to other countries under the age of two months. I always say to parents, don’t wait traveling with your children until they “get older and it gets easier”. No. It gets easier when they are older because they are used to it, not because they are older. Look at two adults, one who never travels and one who travels constantly – traveling is easier for the one with traveling experience, not for the one who is older. Age doesn’t have anything to do with it. A few days after we told our children about the move to Sweden I walk into their room and find an enormous mess. Toys, clothes, books… everywhere. Before I even say a word, my oldest daughter jumps in and says “I know, I know, it’s messy. But the plastic bags are things we are throwing away, the paper bags are filled with things we can donate or sell and the plastic bins and stuff still in the closet are things we want to keep”. A few days ago this beautiful creature looked at me with her gorgeous eyes with a look that could have killed because she was so upset we were taking her away from New York. Today she is already organizing everything she and her sister and brother own and already packing for the move. And we don’t even know when we are moving. And I have barely even started yet. Nomadic life with children can be easy. Because they learn to adapt, they learn to put things in perspective (and understand why we can not move that big Barbie house and they don’t even ask if they could) and they learn to prioritize and see what’s really important in life. , , ,

Katja Presnal

Katja Presnal shows how to live Nordic inspired life to the fullest and plan your dream life. Katja owns Presnal5 strategic marketing intelligence agency and wants to help marketing professionals to combine a dream career and dream life via freelance work. Katja is an award-winning marketing strategist, and a well-known speaker. Katja has lived in five different countries, and seven states in the USA. Her three children were all born in different countries within three years. When not working or jet-setting the world, Katja is at home cooking big family dinners. She has been featured in NY Times, Glamour, Redbook, Fodor's, Forbes and Woman's Day magazines among many other national and international publications and written for MTV3 and Lifetime TV networks.

Comments (2)

  1. how inspiring! i am also planning an international trip for my kids ages 2 to 8 this summer, and i am hoping it is as easy as you make it sound.

  2. thanks for this katja! i’m considering an extended international stay this summer with my kids and this gives me the confidence to do it and know they’ll be better for it.

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