Just to get kids, to get help at age seems not to be the right way.

I would not want that my kids take care on my, and are restricted in their own developement of live in any way.

We can do a live we like. If we like to be well covered at age, get more than a goverment offical retirement home - we should save bucks for - and we dont should plan that our kids should look after us, or have to pay that bill.

But to see kids grow up, see their kids grow up, could help us too to keep young(er)...

But lets get out of the more morbid discussion



Ted Simon - 90 and Still Riding

An age of 70 or 80 - has not to be the end of travelling..

https://adventureriderradio.com/adve...WIVGLsDLVwIyWk

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Is it me or is there a difference in the advice from the Americans/Canadians and Brits/Europeans?

Personally, and I was a secondary school teacher for a short while, I think the education system in the UK is life sucking, with a societal attitude to Match.
Seems to me everyone on this side of the pond is saying knuckle down, those kids need a base and school every day.
Our cousins are saying, well a bit of both: a few years schooling then a long trip (with the kids) perhaps move to a different place a few times.

Neither of my parents went to school much - they were wealthier than I’ll ever be.
My uncle never went to school and couldn’t read or write when he came to Britain, he travelled the world, had 5 kids and died a wealthy man.

The real question you should be asking, which has already been touched upon, is about your relationship. Do you love your partner so much that you want to mix your genes together and have kids?
Does she feel the same?
I don’t think it’s just about having kids - it would all be automated by now if that was the case.
I suspect that, if the answer is yes, then have them and everything else will sort itself out. There’s a Myriad of scenarios that may change your life and alter its path but love is the foundation of our species - get that right, that’s the main thing.

[QUOTE=*Touring Ted*;618579]It's not morbid one bit. Unless you're living in denial that our time on this planet is finite.

Just scroll on brother. Plenty of other threads to read [/

Dear "brother " . its my opinion of the tread and i am entitled to say what i think !
I understood this site is about Motor Bike travel. not peoples misfortunes in life

No kids yet, but for just about the first time in my life I feel like I am in a position to have some. In terms of being in a good relationship, and in terms of where my head's at. (And financially, though I've been fortunate in that sense for a while now.)

Three years or so ago, I left my nice cushy IT job in a company where I had spent 13 years (started in university). I had freedom, I had a bit of cash in the bank, and I had an apartment that would generate a little more every month. I didn't have an RTW-worthy bike, quite, but I could certainly get one. I seriously wanted to pull the trigger at that point, and go off. It was even timed perfectly, in the early Spring, with just a few weeks to set my affairs in order before prime riding weather in Europe.

Why didn't I? Lots of pros and cons, but the deciding factor was: Because I was in a relationship. It wasn't a particularly amazing one, it didn't end up lasting, but I knew what I got out of it, what I felt I owed to my partner, how important it was for me not to let my partner down - and so I didn't. (I got another job; then six months later, I had back surgery. Good thing I wasn't half way across Eurasia when my spine decided walking wasn't a good idea!)

Same thing happened a bit over a year ago: I got laid off, with a nice big settlement check. But again, I was in a relationship... and this time it wasn't even a hard decision. It was a case of looking inside myself, and understanding: If it wasn't for (the pandemic and) this person being in my life, then I would totally get on my bike and go around the world. This was not a doubt about the value of my partner to me, or my commitment - it was proof of it.

Today? I have a new mortgage, and we're getting a puppy.

I still want to travel the world, though I'm not dead-set on doing a full RTW overland. (It helped that I spent my late 20s and early 30s traveling, and have been to five out of six continents.) But the reason I so wanted to go on an extended trip three years ago was because - as Touring Ted mentioned - there was a void in my soul that needed filling, and travel was the one thing I found that came closest to filling it at least a little bit.

Now I can't feel that void any more.

Yes having children is the end of the life as you know it. Is it good or bad thing it is up to you.

You can travel with kids; it will be different kind of travel. It will be more along the lines of family van to Disney.. perhaps national parks.. they would need to get to ~10yo before you can stick munchkin on a back of the bike and ride into sunset.

There's also an opportunity when they get big enough for PW50, trails and racing. And you'd have a riding partner when they get to 16-18yo if you do it right.

[QUOTE=badou24;618583]

1) You are incorrect about the purpose of this site. It's about travel and everything that goes with it. Not just motorcycle.

2) This thread is in the Pub. Which is for threads that aren't really specific to any topic but it's what people who like travel may talk about if they were in a pub. So literally ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.

3) It's not a misfortune.

4) Just ignore it if it offends or upsets you. keep your negativity to yourself. It's not welcome here.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Please don't make little Teds...
One is more than enough

Ted Simon has just turned 90. And he is still riding. Inspirational

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Did know that you would like to see your older Ted on Tour

Surfy

__________________
About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

I have never been that fussed either way. When I was younger if i had been with someone that wanted kids I would have happily gone along with that but it never happened that way for me. As I have grown I am glad not to have had kids an the way the world an society are going it’s not a place I’d want to bring them into.

World's always been like that. I've been hearing people say much the same certainly back to the 60's, a time scale that probably covers the gestation of a fair few people here. Its been a lot worse in the past - imagine having children in 1900 or 1925, or even 1950 if you're from the US. Or way way back, having a house / hovel full of kids in 1348. Despite Covid these are not bad times in the grand scheme of things.


Come to any conclusions yet Ted? Just goes to show what a disparate bunch we all are, all with our own ambitions, disappointments, successes and life stories. Some travelling despite kids, some with them, some in place of them. If there's a greater wisdom to be got from it all I'll leave it to you to work out but the words damned if you do and damned if you don't come to mind on the back of a phrase I'm sure your partner will be familiar with - elderly primigravida. Basically it's now or never for both options and certainly for travel in the way you've done it up to now.

Let me just throw in a cautionary tale however. I mentioned before that I was a reluctant parent - basically because, even in my 30's, I didn't feel ready for it. There was one exception though, with someone I met in my early 20's. That, regrettably, didn't work out and travel (mine) was partly to blame. I knew fairly quickly I'd made a big mistake and when I think back to that period now it's the person that stands out and who I remember, not the travel I did. I've taken a lot of care since not to make the same mistake again, and looking very carefully at why I want to travel has been part of it. In fact searching my travel soul has become a bit of a mini industry with me, with a bike trip planned for last year (Covid cancelled) to explore what I get from it. Quite what a psychologist would make of that I'm not sure but despite having three available to me it's not something they're ever going to have to deal with. I'm not sure my experience is of much relevance to you directly other than to mention that sometimes what you think are equivalents don't turn out that way in the long run.

I never mentioned covid being a part of my decision. When I was a kid the summer holidays was for exploring on my bmx or building tree houses going out in the morning and roaming endlessly across fields till it was time to go home exhausted at the end of the day. If I got thirsty I’d stop at a pub to get my water bottle filled or ask someone that was in their garden . It’s not that world anymore where I live

I left my home country as I got a chance to do. I lived, worked in foreign countries and I travel as much as I could afford in time and money. From my 20s on I never lived longer than 5 years in one town. I came to the decission not to have kids in my 30s because I wanted live my life my way and without respondsibilities for a family.

Traveling was never a substitute for anything for me. It still gives me independence and let me feel a kind of freedom for sure.

However suddenly the day arrived when my mum started suffering from demencia. I quit my job, moved 600km up to her to live with her and to nurse her. Did this for 4 years - since a year she is living in a special nursing home.

That`s a plus if you will have a son like me. But if you will have a son like my brother who has 3 kids, then you get only once visited a year when it fits his plans. So, kids are are garantee for nothing...

Do I worry what will be in future when I am getting old or when I start suffering from an illness? No, I don`t. I learned and I am used to live on my own. I learned to take/accept help from others if I needed it. In life and in travellife. I am not afraid what will happen to me later - the pandemic showed me in the last 12 months by a number of people I personal knew that life goes and ends in unforeseeable ways.

It will change your perspective if you will have a kid or more. That doesn`t mean in the same time that you cannot travel anymore. Maybe in the first years of your kid you have to change your style of traveling. But you will do automatically and maybe you will buy a motorcycle with a sidecar?

Life means continuous traveling in a direction with an unknown destination in time and place.

Coco Chanel once said: "I do regret nothing in life, except everything I didn`t do". I think that is the point because nobody of us will ever know what had happend when he/she had found a different decision.

In short: You cannot answer yourself the question of the death bed till your are actually lying on it.

A great post.
You’re right but I think you must still ask the question, often in your life, in order to walk the path - no guarantees that you’ll end up where you thought you were heading, but each journey starts with a decision on which road to take.

We chose a somewhat middle path - from the US originally but left about 30 years ago. Kids were born in Europe. We've tended to move countries/continents about once a decade, and then spend the next decade exploring the surrounding region/countries. It winds up being a bunch of shorter trips rather than one big one, but you can fit a lot into long weekends, school holidays and the like. And the advantage is that the kids grow up with a world experience that is amazing, yet also have some stability and structure. We're at 90+ countries and counting ... and are constantly told that we've seen more of [name your country - currently Australia] than most locals.