What’s Really Important

So we are now a little over a week into our family adventure, the four of us traveling South America in a 21 year old camper van. To say life is different on the road than what we are used to in Dublin, would be a grand understatement…

Where to start?

Perhaps with the campervan itself. In Dublin, we had the huge fortune to live in a wonderful home, with bedrooms for all and even additional rooms for working, playing and relaxing. Not every family has this fortune, something I am acutely aware of. What we have found thus far, living in a 16 sq m space together, is how capable we are of not only surviving, but thriving as a family. It’s amazing how putting ourselves in this situation has enabled us to work together, cooperate and help each other, like we have never done before. Don’t get me wrong, the week has not passed without some very testing moments, but I can honestly say that living in such close proximity has been a tremendous experience for our family so far.

Daily life on the road is very busy, with many things to do to ensure our basic needs as a family are met, and that the emotional needs of all family members are also catered for. It is very clear to us after this first week that this is not a holiday. I say that not in a negative way, just an immediate realization for myself and Laura. Traveling with our two young children means that many more considerations must be thought of and addressed each day, to ensure that everyone goes to sleep at night feeling heard, challenged, safe and happy.

We have spent each night in Santiago Chile, sleeping beside the beautiful Metropolitano Park. Given the population of the greater Santiago area is c.8 million people, the city has a plethora of activities to do and see. As our prior travels have usually included large amounts of sight-seeing and tourist activities, we are used to being up, out and experiencing all that the place we are in has to offer. Camper van life is very different. Mornings are spent fetching water, emptying toilets, preparing breakfasts (and often lunches), making incredibly inaccessible beds, organizing laundry, calls/messages/emails to family and friends, doing schoolwork with the kids, and various other activities that are generally required to keep the show on the road! 

If I was to define myself, I would say that I am inherently a doer. So the above is not something that has tainted my experience of our adventure in any way. What it does mean however is that the usual “holiday” mentality and actions of such a trip, out and exploring non-stop, is just not possible. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, just something that requires a shifting of expectations. If we as a family, manage a nice activity or two in the afternoons, this feels like the right balance and something that we can continue on a sustainable basis.

Also, what we have quickly learned is that the kids cannot continue to be pushed to their physical and mental limits each day. They (and probably us as parents too) need a healthy mix of challenging activities, combined with down-time, and time to oneself. This is of course a work in progress, and I suspect will be until the day that we end our adventure. However, I am hopeful that having this awareness will allow us to take care of both their, and our own needs, each and every day.

Before we left, we attended a close-friend’s family barbecue, where our youngest had his first experience of playing with a hurley. Being part of family with a long history following Dublin GAA football, and playing GAA football myself, it probably raises questions as to why it took us so long to introduce him to this…! However, looking past this parental oversight, he fell in love with it straightaway and we ended up bringing a couple of hurls for the kids on our trip. In years to come, I am quite confident that the newly-invented game of hurling-baseball will rival football, cricket and hockey as one of the most played sports in the world. This not only combines all the artistry, skill and intensity of Ireland’s national game (alongside Gaelic football), but also incorporates all the strategy, agility and explosiveness of America’s favourite pastime.

Having said all this (and playing down the dubious commercialization prospects I have outlined above, given it is essentially just baseball played with a hurley!), what we have learned as a family is how fantastic it is when we all stop what we are doing in our busy days and make time for the things that are important. For our son this week, it has been playing hurling-baseball together as a family. Preparing the dinner, re-organizing the wardrobe space and “just checking” one thing on the phone, can and must all wait for something which is patently much more important.

For this, and many more things that have occurred this week, I am very grateful🙏

Click here to read the “Fun In The Mountains” blog post