I’m having a mild panic here at My Well Traveled Friend. Being a mum travel blogger is tough. There are very few toddler free hours left these days that aren’t consumed by either travel or organizing or sleep. I have fallen so far behind in my posts that it appears I have missed no less than 4 countries and 6 months of travel. As Oscar would say “Whoops – a – daisy mummy!” What to do about this giant travel blogger fail?
How do mum travel bloggers survive?
Why did I start this madness? Well it’s not for the money that is for sure. My one and only aim was to get those armchair travel moms into a car, bus, train or airplane and adventure. I hope I have achieved at least one crazy adventure somewhere in the world. I would love to hear from you if I did?! The thing is that a lot of the time I’m really busy doing that myself. I am totally clueless as to how all these amazing mum blogs of any type get done. These women are my hero’s. A post a day?! When? How? What am I doing wrong? I keep hearing about calendars, scheduling, managing your time la la la. Sadly I feel like not ending my day covered in snot, chocolate and pasta sauce is a grand success. I am so proud of myself when I don’t burst out crying at another flat-out NO from my stubborn and strong-willed child. I am genuinely surprised and bewildered that I begin and end each day without any major incidents, loss of limbs or missing child posters. At first I was resolute. I’m not going to catch up. I’m going to dedicate my time to organizing the chaos that is 20 months of travel 3 1/2 years of living away from civilization and focus on my next adventure. A job! Yes you read that right. Then I made a giant mistake.
Why I love being a mum travel blogger?
I spent 10 minutes looking through my photographs. All those amazing places and all those amazing people and all those amazing views and all those amazing meals. My new-found love for El Salvador. My cop stops in Honduras. The Macaw sanctuary. The secret bays in Croatia? I can’t I have to get this down. So here I am at 6;15 am doing what I’m guessing those crazy mum bloggers around the world do, trying to impart some of my hard-earned wisdom (ha ha). The truth is that as I contemplate life with a little less travel in it the thing I think about most is all the people we have met. I have learned so much about not judging parents, about appreciating everything you can learn from other family’s and learning to offer a helping hand. Raising a family isn’t a walk in the park anywhere in the world and being a mum is a daily challenge no matter if you are on a beach in Mexico, on a lake in Guatemala or in a city in Croatia. Recently I got an email. It was from a mum who lived in the US. She had backpacked, traveled and holidayed the world. Then she had a daughter 8 years ago and her travel journal went more like this. Home – work – daycare – grandma and grandpa’s, Sound familiar? She wanted to know where to start? Tough question but I really wanted to give her the right answer. I told her to take her daughter to the place in the world she had visited and loved most. Best part of the story? She did and they send me a picture. Obviously I cried I was so overwhelmed that my mad little travel adventure had inspired her.The truth is I don’t get those emails every day and sometimes it can get lonely. Travel can be lonely. I see a lot of guides on how not to get lonely as a solo traveler. I never read them, bizarrely I never think of myself as a solo traveler. Madness! It’s not like Oscar can hold an interesting conversation and read a map. He is getting better at both though I have to confess. I have to read one. Who has the time lol.
I keep telling myself that one day I will write some solo mum travel tips. One day I’m also going to write about all the tips and parenting stories I have heard in every country I have visited. One day! Until then I will get caught up with my travels and share with you all the great places we stayed and enjoyed and why and how and all of that. Being a mum travel blogger may just be the most motivating thing I have ever done and having all these amazing people to share it with make it even more so. If we have inspired you, made you laugh or even look up a flight please let us know. We need a little sharing and caring too from time to time. Now on to the adventures first stop will be Honduras, I didn’t love it 🙁