What I Was Doing While I Was Breeding: Children Don’t Have To Hinder Your Freedom To Travel

Comedic writer and travel aficionado Kristin Newman has created an anthem for single women around the globe. Newman’s debut book is called “What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir.” As the title suggests, Kristin chronicles her life as a 20 and 30-something who is unmarried, without children. She discusses the freedom she experienced during travel with some pretty hysterical encounters from across the world. Though Kristin’s memoir is a fantastic reflection of the joys that can be found during travel, I can’t help but notice the glaring “you” in the title, as I am that you. I have been “breeding” and not only breeding but breeding a larger-than-normal brood that includes three children. However, despite having children and a spouse, I too have experienced the freedom of travel.

As a family of five traveling full time, we have come across our fair share of dinner party worthy stories. Therefore, I feel it is important to note that “breeding” doesn’t have to hinder your ability to travel or experience the same freedom that Newman describes in her book. So in case you were wondering, here is what I was doing while I was breeding.

In Newman’s flagship book, “What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding” she discusses her ability to travel for months on end due to the nature of her employment as a writer for some hit comedy series such as “Chuck,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Neighbors.” Newman notes that she would spend her off-time from work traveling the globe as a means to escape her high stress job and life in LA.

“Kristin Newman spent her 20s and 30s dealing with the stresses of her high-pressure job as a television comedy writer, and the anxieties of watching most of her friends get married and start families while she wrestled with her own fear of both. Not ready to settle down and yet loathe to become a sad-sack single girl, Kristin instead started traveling the world, often alone, for a few months each year, falling madly in love with attractive locals who provided moments of the love she wanted without the cost of the freedom she needed.”

Like Kristin, my family was seeking to distance ourselves from the stress and hustle of the traditional workplace. Instead of busting it 60+ hours a week at our brick-and-mortar jobs, sacrificing time with our family and becoming slaves to the time clock, we decided to do something out of the ordinary and free ourselves from those constraints. Therefore, after building our “virtual employment” portfolio we cut all ties to a location-specific life and took to the road with our three small children in tow. As a result, we found freedom and joy in some of the most unlikely of places.

Whether it was getting lost in northern Vermont without a GPS signal in sight and ending up in at what may be the world’s best pizza shop/ bar/ grocery store/ local hangout or staying up until the wee hours of the night speaking to our new friends from Denmark while eating Key Lime Pie and discussing world politics in the Florida Keys, our stories are ones that we will treasure until the day we die.

Sadly in America today, many people feel that if they start a family they have to give up any previous dreams or desires. Fortunately, with a little creativity and the help of today’s virtual workplace, those dreams are still attainable, family or not. Not only am I getting to experience the world in a whole new way, I am giving my children the gift of travel in the process. From climbing Mayan ruins in Mexico to kayaking with Manatees in hot springs, I know my children will have memories and experiences that will help shape their futures and love for travel. In just six months, our family has traversed 27 states and two countries with a goal of completing a trek across the continental 48 within a year.

While many families may feel like a life of full time travel is unattainable, there are thousands of families in the United States alone who have made it work. With group connections of over 5,000 members, with varying financial means, I know my family is not alone in its desire to break free from the “norm.” In fact, the Inquisitr previously reported on the Davies who took a year to travel the world with their two daughters.

“After saving for nine years, the Davies departed on their journey in September of 2013, and returned almost a year later, in August, 2014. Adele says the memories they made on this trip will stay with them forever and they don’t regret homeschooling their girls.”

Though the Davies spent years saving for their “trip of a lifetime,” many families, like mine, have been able to move to full time travel on a middle class income. With a little pre-planning and downsizing, full time travel has become reality for many families on a strict budget.

If you had the ability to work virtually would you travel full time with your family? What concerns would you have about breaking ties with the norm and living a more transient life?