Back

The social nomad | Day 191 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jul 10, 2023· 3 minutes

🇩🇰 Read in Danish 🇬🇧

A question we often meet is this: What about friends? I

t is no different from before we started traveling; when the kids had their homebased life in a house, it was the same worry most people came to us with: How is children's social life outside the school system? And will they be socialized?

In 2012, I wrote a simple blog post on the social life of home-based children.

It has been one of the most read pieces, and I feel it is about time to do another one. It seems complicated for people outside the lifestyle inside what I call “The Box” to understand.

I think it is necessary to look at where the question comes from, beside an often wholehearted worry about the thriving of our family. Thank you for that, all!

Let me say: We’ve got it. Dont worry. We are happy and balanced.

But let’s face it: The question also comes from an understanding of how crucial friendships are for schooled children and how important it is for them to survive the context of the school setting emotionally.

The focus on friends and learning social codes is based on the fear of the child drowning in a sea of loneliness, lack of confidence, being mocked, and being an outcast.

This is a short text, not the next long blog-style unfolding of the theme, so let me be clear: We do not have that problem. There is no sea to drown in.

Our children are not dependent on a social field of

A) lack of trust of adults (because they always have an agenda, and they don’t trust you)

B) too many other children you are forced to spend EVERY DAY with for up to NINE hours.

You grow strong.

You get to know yourself. Y

ou pick and choose your own friends.

And passions.

You have TIME for your relations.

I don’t need to spend several hours a day with my friends to have a rich social life, nor do my children.

As it happens, we, all of us, including the children, have friends in many countries - long-lasting beautiful friendships.

We mostly travel for people or coordinate adventures with friends and spend most of our time coliving.

There is no problem. At all.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

🇩🇰 Read in Danish 🇬🇧 

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our life like this, and we get very happy when we get feedback from you. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

Ten days in Sweet Sweden is waiting. Nothing on the calendar but sunshine, forest, birdsong. Beautiful. Read more
The saying “less is more” has been around for a long time, and it makes sense to a lot of people. The minimalist movement has been big, and it is an …Read more
Adults obsess about making rules, and setting “boundaries” for children so that they understand = obey. I find it hilarious because adults don’t resp…Read more
I trust we are always at the right place at the right time. It is a matter of mindset. Of trusting the process. Of focus. As Chi-Gon (master of Obiw…Read more
Copenhagen is a city by the water. We sailed the canals together with my soul-friend Tamiko and her partner on a big raft. Spending a day on the wate…Read more
Some days are overloaded with to-do. If we lean back and trust the process, they might unfold beautifully. When we sat around the porridge and berrie…Read more
A friend of mine told me about a Shakespeare open-air play in one of the central parks - The Tempest, a play I had never heard about. It was funny, m…Read more
I sometimes tell myself this: If I do what is hard (make my way through the narrow path of doing what I find right despite all systems around me), my…Read more
If I were ever to move back to my hometown, I would not choose the new areas. I would stick to be me. And hope to find some of the wild lives, some o…Read more