What do you do with the kids???

[Dakota]

I travelled a lot when I was younger which I loved, then I got married and did the kid thing, which I also loved and still am. But recently I've been getting itchy feet (maybe it has something to do with my impending 40th).

Our kids are 12 and 14 so our RTW trip will at minimum be 10 years in the planning and in the meantime we enjoy much shorter trips. For the first time in our lives together, my husband and I have both got bikes (we always shared one before). We joke that most couples have matching riding gear, but ours are completely different - it's our bikes that are matching!!

So my question is really for those people who go on extended trips. Do you have kids, are they grown up and left home, or do you take them with you? Our son (14) would benefit so much more from the 'university of life' but our daughter (12 going on 20) has always flourished in educational establishments and has aspirations of being a lawyer so taking her out of school wouldn't be the right thing to do and we wouldn't consider/couldn't afford boarding school.

We would like nothing more than to sell up, pack up and never look back, but for now it's a distant dream.