Living, Loving, and Raising a Family on the Road with the Boundless Bronnekes
The Boundless Bronnekes share their full-time RV life transition, homeschooling, and maintaining relationships on the "Roads and Stays Podcast." Insights on overcoming fears, educational adventures, and intimate connection tips.
An Audio Magazine all about RV adventures, RV tips, and RV tricks. Roads and Stays Podcast is hosted by Jeremy Storton.
This Month’s Episode Features a Conversation with the Boundless Bronnekes
In this month’s episode, you will hear from a family of four—plus pets—about their journey from “the traditional life” to their version of the American Dream. Learn what helped them make the jump, how long they thought they’d be on the road, and some tips to make life work better. Listen to the podcast to learn how they’ve figured out homeschooling, what they do on their travel days, and how they keep their relationship intact—with thin walls and kids next door. Check out some highlights below or the entire podcast here.
Meet The Boundless Bronnekes
James, Kestra, Wesley, and Ella are a family who downsized and started traveling full-time in 2021 to explore the United States. For the past two years, they’ve laughed and learned a lot along the way.
What Was The Final Push For Them To Make the Decision?
During the pandemic, they realized there was an opportunity to take advantage of inflated housing prices. The big question they asked themselves that gave them the push was this: “Will we regret this (not taking the chance) if we don’t?” They realized they would, and decided to push forward.
What Were Some of Their Fears, and How Did They Overcome Them?
Most of their fears revolved around relationships—particularly their kids. How would their kids avoid the lack of socializing with their peers? How would they do as homeschooled kids? How would they handle not seeing their extended family? And how would they deal with missing their friends? These are often questions a lot of families have, and the Bronnekes gave some great explanations on how they handled those situations.
How Did They Tell the Kids?
They didn’t want it to feel like they were excluding their kids from the conversation. They included their kids, listened to their grievances, and helped them see a way through. They gave a couple of tips on how to make this happen—and it seems to be going great.
What Is Homeschooling Like?
Kestra is the daughter of a veteran teacher and was fully prepared. She talks about how she purchased everything she needed—or so she thought. She talks a little bit about how she quickly learned to adapt her teaching methods while on the road by tapping into some great advice she received years before. Now the Bronnekes utilize experiential learning mixed with some curriculum to really help their kids thrive in their education. By taking advantage of their travels and destinations with Harvest Hosts, they are able to have more open dialogues with their kids. They use one example in the interview of their experience traveling the east coast, and helping their kids learn more about history. Maybe this conversation could help some other homeschool families. Just take a listen to find all the gems.
How Do They Stay Connected Intimately?
This is where the conversation got a little humorous—and real. There were two great quotes about staying connected and learning to live together in the tight quarters of an RV. One quote was about having dialogue with your spouse to stay on the same page and avoid major conflicts. Kestra essentially said to train your marriage the same way you would train a puppy—with positive reinforcement. Telling your partner when you like what you are doing—instead of pointing out their flaws. A second quote was in regards to the experience of staying physically intimate while living in close proximity with your kids. James equated this to parallel parking. At first it is a difficult thing, but eventually you figure it out—and it just works. They also provide some other tips on keeping intimacy healthy too. There are a lot of intimate moments that aren’t physical. By expanding your understanding of intimacy, you can really grow your relationship in a situation that could be difficult for others. Another highlight of this interview was figuring out the way to have difficult conversations. James noted that without his man cave he can’t just walk away from a conversation. He knows they need to work through it. So changing the conversation from being against one another to the two partners against the problem has really helped them learn to have these conversations. Plus, they like to use driving days to go deeper in conversation, and really talk things through.
