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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You have to prioritize structuring your life for travel to fit in. Our kids are 3 and 6 and we travel a ton. Here's some ideas:
-You say you have no one to watch the kids so you can't travel alone. You have to find someone and built that relationship. We have 2 great date night sitters who are between 25-28yo. We use them each 1-2x per month, our kids adore them, and we use them for weekends away when needed (or they're willing to go away with us).
-We purposely chose jobs that would allow for travel. Dh works for a company based in Gothenburg, Sweden and has to be there 1-2x per year. We usually extend this into a family trip and the his flights are paid for. He also gets standard European benefits including 5 weeks vacation, 15 sick days, 12 holidays, and 6 months paternity leave. He took the lower of 2 offers for this set up. I am permanently remote and am allowed to work from anywhere with a flex schedule as long as the work gets done.
-We bring one of our moms often when we travel. They LOVE the time with our kids, we love having them around, and we usually get a date night or two in.
-We home exchange so lodging is always free when we travel. This allows us to travel SO much more without budget concerns. We usually go away for 2 weeks over the holidays, 1 week at spring break, and 4-8 weeks in the summer.
-I usually go away for 1 week per year either alone or with my mom. The kids are in school/daycare anyway during the week so DH just has to get them there and pick them up. It's one week a year, your DH could do the same.
-By home exchanging we don't need to plan or pack hardly anything. We show up to a full house with a stocked kitchen, toys, a crib, stroller, laundry room, fenced in yard etc. We often exchange cars too. We usually bring 3-4 days worth of clothes per person in 2 carry ons and then do laundry as needed. We go out for 1 meal a day and cook the rest. Really, it's a game changer.

in 2023, we were in Germany and Belgium for 2 weeks over the holidays, Iceland for a week over spring break, and lived in Ireland for 5 weeks over the summer. Summer 2024, we will be in Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg for 6 weeks. In Summer 2025, we plan to do a big trip to Asia.
[/quote]

Any tips for how to find home exchanges? I signed up on the main website, we have a nice kid-friendly 5-bedroom 40 min outside of DC and I set up availability for the whole summer and no one was interested. I did try to reach out to people too and everyone declined. This was for European trips.

I agree grandmas are a huge help, sadly we don't have that option. We have used a sitter in Europe, but I don't have any trusted contacts outside of Europe/US and wouldn't be able to afford to fly someone out.[/quote]

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