“How on earth do you travel with kids?”
“I don’t think I’d ever be brave enough to travel with kids.”
“But isn’t it difficult to move around so much with two kids?
“Oh wow, I didn’t realize it was possible to travel with a family.”
Yes, I’m a travel nurse and a mom..
These are all some of the reactions that I’ve heard time and time again when people find out I am a travel nurse who travels with my husband and our two kids. It’s usually a conversation with another nurse at a hospital I’m at for an assignment. The nurse usually will casually ask me where I’m traveling from and how long I’ve been traveling. Somewhere down the line my kids naturally will come up in conversation (because, I’m a total mom and I talk about my two adorable kids nonstop) and that’s when the nurse connects the dots! Yes, I’m a travel nurse and a mom. And I absolutely love it.
It is Possible
If you’re a parent who has always wanted to give travel nursing a try, I want you to know that it’s completely possible. It’s possible AND it’s honestly one of the best decisions we’ve made as a family. I’ll tell you a little bit of our family’s story.
Before we decided to start this travel nurse lifestyle, my husband and I had been talking for quite some time about travel nursing as though it was some distant dream we would possibly try sometime in the future when we were empty nesters and our kids were grown. Maybe we’d set off on some grand adventure after he was retired and I was in the later years of my nursing career. The more we talked about it and dreamt of a future of traveling the country together, the more appealing it was to both of us. It became a very popular topic of conversation in our home that we couldn’t stop thinking and praying about. One day we just had to ask ourselves, “Why not now?”
Why not now?
Why wait until years and years down the road to pursue a dream we were so passionate about now? We started talking about how much fun it would be to travel around the country together as a family and to make those memories WITH our kids instead of waiting to experience that adventure after they were grown and out of the house. What a cool adventure to go on as a family.
That changed everything for us. We started doing our research about travel nursing with a family, and found that it wasn’t actually all that uncommon, as we had previously thought. We were able to find lots of other families who travel together with their kids! It wasn’t long before we started taking active steps towards making our dream a reality. In August of 2018 we began our big adventure as a family and we have spent this past year making the most incredible memories as we travel together around the country.
I’m not going to tell you that it’s all rainbows and butterflies
Now listen, I’m not going to tell you that it’s all rainbows and butterflies or that traveling with kiddos is easy peasy. Obviously, that’s not the case. (I mean, let’s be real… sometimes kids can make a simple trip to the grocery store turn into a huge life event.) Traveling with kids does come with its own unique sets of challenges. What will your kids do for school? Who will watch your kids while you work? Can you find housing that is kid-friendly? Is the city you’re thinking of traveling to going to be safe for kids? There are all kinds of additional factors you have to consider when you travel with children. That’s just the truth of it and I want to encourage parents to be prepared for those challenges as you go into it.
It is SO worth it!
All things considered, even with the challenges that traveling with kids brings to the table, it’s SO worth it to get to experience this lifestyle together. We absolutely love it! If you are a parent who has a dream of traveling with your kids while making a living – we encourage you to make it happen! Your kids will thank you for it!
