1. Communicate!
Communicate with her….she can’t read your mind.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but speaking from a wife’s point of view this is HUGE! The communication has always been great with Erik and I and maybe this is why I was always “on-board”. When my husband started down the family-travel road. He was reading a book he had gotten from the library called The One Year Off. As he read, he was inspired. Although our adventure didn’t look anything like this families’ adventure, it was enough inspiration to get the ball rolling for Erik! He then sat down one evening and wrote me a letter. I am a great talker..and great at interrupting.. maybe this is why he felt he needed to write a letter. He has told me later that it was also for him to be able to get all of his thoughts down and organize them. As a wife it helped me to understand the why’s and was something I could go back to and re-read. Also, I could see his heart and motive. We then spent many nights talking out the logistics. I know it was this OPEN communication that kept us going and united us as a team. Later, as we traveled, we have met many families that you could see they had the communication thing DIALED IN! It is important for women to feel like they are part of the team instead of along for the ride! This is also very empowering for you as a team. We have always known that if we were on the same page with any issue..ie parenting, schedules, etc, we act as a team instead of fighting each other.
2.Educate!
Help educate her with blogs, sites, and books.
Mom’s are busy! I don’t care whether you have 1 child or 6 (like I do)….Mom’s are busy. Thinking about things most men aren’t. So when the idea of travel came up my thoughts immediately went to, laundry, shopping, food, medical, SCHOOLING. Where as men are thinking about visas, repairs, money…etc. Do you see what I mean? In our situation, Erik quickly found books online about topics that I was sorting through. We found many books written by the wives. And in reading them, I was encouraged to see solutions and stories of women that had already gone through what we were attempting to embark on and SURVIVED! When we started traveling 9 years ago most of the books and encouragement we found were books through Amazon. Now, there are TONS of blogs and wealth of information found online. Like Family Adventure Podcast!
3.Connect!
Make efforts to connect with other travelers.
I think this is the toughest one. I read recently that the biggest downfall for women traveling is the LACK of community. This is a hard one for men because most men have a hard time relating. One of my husband’s famous lines is “Men are like islands.” Relationships are just not as much of a priority. Where as women are different. I can remember getting together with other traveling moms and our discussions always touched on advice and encouragement. Sorry men…this is the way women are wired! As we traveled with found families and connected with them. We kept in touch with them and as we traveled looked for ways (if it worked) to hook-up. One family in particular was an American family that was sailing around the world on s/v Imagine. We met this family in Israel and became instant friends. Believe it or not, we then met up with them in Greece, Italy, Spain, Gibraltar, Canary Islands, and then in the Bahamas! Still to this day we are great friends. The interesting thing about traveling friends is that through the internet and blogs you are able to connect and connect with families before you meet them. I would start these relationship now!
In the end, as a traveling wife, my encouragement is this: Just do it! We wish we would not have waited as long as we did! And I would be happy to help and encourage any wife /mom who needs support!
{Rachel Hemingway is a homeschool mom/travel writer. Her goal is to encourage Wives and Moms about Homeschooling ‘outside the box’, give them the tools then need to get started and to show that sometimes traveling with kids will give them a better education than any textbooks. She lives in Wilmington, NC where she homeschools 4 of her 6 children. And travel writes in her spare time.}
