"look. Your existence meant we do couldn't do this when we were 21 and now you're full price in all the accommodation so no point asking you to come. Yes we've sold your things. No, we can't wait 5 years and do this without your sister, we'll be nearly _40_"
Have some imagination. The daughter is 16 and is probably stoked to be flying out to Thailand for holidays. And in a few years she'll be backpacking and partying. You can delude yourself but the UK is quite a miserable place to live. To quote Morrissey: "A seaside town they forgot to close down."
They pulled the 12yo from school and she's "already starting to miss having a house and a routine and friends, but we're also thinking that we don't know exactly where we want to call home yet and the only way we're going to find out is to keep travelling"
The whole thing came off as "we basically got knocked up too early and are now properly pissed off with all the responsibilities we brought on ourselves, so we thought we'd just, you know, skip out on them". I'm sure their daughter will go far in life with 'adding up different currencies' skills...
“This isn’t too bad, is it? I mean, they sound a bit annoying and more than a touch privileged but I-… they left their other daughter behind. Their other daughter is not with them and they are making plans to ‘visit’ her.”
I met a couple like them in Venezuela. I still think about them, they were the most annoying people I've ever met. But they didn't have a 12 year old with them.
The repeated discussion of "grind" and "consumerism" being part of "Western culture" is revealing of how little notice they are really taking of the places they are visiting. People in Thailand work hard and like buying stuff too!
South Americans also work very long hours and love consumer goods. Nothing like growing up without much to make you really appreciate the joys of a large telly.
And constantly moving from place to place and squeezing everything you can out of social media doesn't exactly sound like my idea of "away from the grind"
Well yes. Also, the grandparents taking on the responsibility of parenting a teen in, I'm gonna venture, an emotionally delicate place might feel they have been forced 'back to the grind' rather than enjoying their retirement
tbf, trying to negotiate paying for taxis last time I was in Beirut was an exercise in differential calculus that was in general conducted across four currencies and three languages (my lack of Arabic was occasionally quite the hindrance)...
Apparently they're getting discounts on accommodation in return for social media postings. I've tried finding their accounts and - despite quite a bit of media coverage - I can't find a thing about them.
The family have learned Spanish and Tilly's maths developed as she got used to using different currencies. Her confidence and cooking skills have also improved, her parents said.
Uhh math works the same in all currencies doesn't it?
I assumed they would be but I couldn't find them. There are a surprising number of Joes, Emmas, and Tillys all travelling the world and posting on Instagram!!
I can hardly blame them for wanting to leave Brexit Island for somewhere better. But yes, it reeks of entitlement. You can only do that sort of thing if you have a secure financial safety net.
The comments section reeks of the parochial, unimaginative jealousy you come to expect from us Brits. The villagers descend with their pitchforks because a family chose to escape with money they obviously worked hard to earn. It sucks to admit, but places like Thailand are cheaper and nicer than UK.
No, some of us are genuinely irritated that the BBC has platformed two sociopathic narcissists who abandoned their teenage daughter and family dog to pursue their lost dream of backpacking
Canuck here. I happen to think that those who "escape" the consumerism they profess to hate so much are cowards. You don't like society? Be the change you want to see. Don't throw up your hands, ditch one of your daughters (and a dog), then claim it's for the benefit of the 12-year old.
They rehomed their eldest daughter and their dog to tourist visa their way around the world, looking for a community of British immigrants to settle among where they can live cheaply.
Has Tilly learned any Asian languages since the large continent of S America is all 'too dangerous'?
People from all over the world work in Chiang Mai. Fantastic food, scenery, temples, mountain biking, a couple of hours from world's best beaches and a crime rate about half that of Mexico. And why is it bad that it is also cheaper? People travel for medical treatment to Thailand from all over Asia.
> leaving a 16 year old at home
> Travelling illegally on a tourist visa
> bringing a child along away from friends, family and schooling
"Chang Mai is a great place tho"
Character building. Looks good on the CV. The kids will definitely benefit from that. If you want to be an accountant perhaps boring and reliable would be good but otherwise something that shows you are a global citizen with a broad mind helps.
Lots of 'ex-pats' there. By which they mean immigrants. From the UK. Who are not adapting to Thai culture and live in a seperate little immigrant ghetto - oops - I mean 'ex-pat community'.
Imagine the uproar if a Thai person said that about Manchester.
Well if people travel there from all over the world that makes rehoming your eldest, and dog, and arriving in a country where you don't speak the language - having decided that the CONTINENT you were mooching around is dangerous (tag-a-long daughter 'knows' language mostly spoken there) dandy.
Also helps if one is a self-centered narcissist who has no intention of adapting to the culture of the country you landed in. Are they going to be paying 'digital income tax' in Thailand? Learning to speak Thai?
I believe the UK has a huge issue recently with people they claim are doing that.
Yeah, this guy is all over the comments defending the greatness of poverty tourism and inequality exploitation from his personal experience, seems like the article struck a nerve.
There's $1.6 billion in lost income tax if digital nomads ditch British residency for good. Look at the flight of the non-doms. If you punish workers too much they just go an work and pay income tax somewhere else. Not sure mobile entrepreneurs are the problem.
So the 16 year old presumably doesn't like being filmed all the time, so didn't go with them. She loses her sister, parents, dog and home. And they 'don't know' when they can be bothered to come back and visit her. Yikes.
Notably she's not named, so mature enough to refuse media attention. My guess is she's close to the grandparents anyway - they're likely not especially old.
"Long-term rentals" are out because of "complications with their visas".
Awfully complicated things, visas – the things they do and don't let you do IF YOU'RE A TOURIST.
Ahem.
Perhaps Tilly can build up her life skills by getting hold of some fake Thai identity documents. Fun for all the family!
I’m sure their daughter will thrive with her hard earned skills of cooking in bedsits, booking flights for her parents, and running from gunmen, and their abandoned daughter and dog will thank them for such rich life experience.
What's incredible about this is also that they are just influences using their daughter for clout. But they get promoted on the BBC! It's a business, you're giving them free advertising, stop!
Another, better way of life is out there and easily achievable as long as you ditch any inconvenient family members and generally only care about yourselves
"My husband (65F) and I (65M) have told our son and daughter-in-law we don't want to raise our granddaughter in their place, whilst they travel South America trying to become influencers. AWTA?"
Do you mean why doesn't she have a solidly forgettable British name like Sue or Cathy? Clearly these people are nails sticking out that need to be hammered down by responsible members of society as soon as possible!
What a pair of entitled selfish knobheads. I hope their left behind daughter enjoys her time with her grandparents away from them. Wait until both you kids are old enough to be left on their own and go "find' yourself. Oh and do it quietly rather than posting about it all the time
Let me get this straight. Their answer to not being "forced" to keeping up with the Joneses is to abandon one daughter and a dog in favour of providing a 12-year old with employable skills but no friends? Okay. Got it.
Love that they casually mentioned leaving their eldest daughter at home about halfway down the article. 16-year-olds aren't adults, they still need their parents! 😠
Despite myself I searched for their “Smiths On Tour” account and discovered to my surprise that Marr and Morrissey have buried the hatchet and will shortly be performing at the Fox and Firkin
Mauritania and Madagascar are the two countries which don't use base 10 for their currencies, and the Ekari language in New Guinea uses base 60 (I googled it). But I'm not sure the ex-pat communities and Airbnb markets are so strong there, so they'll probably give them a miss.
Given the parents age, I suspect the grandparents did a fair amount of the 16 yr-old's parenting anyway so staying with them is perhaps not so much of a wrench.
Probably! It just seems so weird to not just say some boilerplate half-truth like "she didn't want to come because she wanted to do her GCSEs" or something.
Or she was given some stability to have friends and an education. The 12 year old is going to be not wanting to spend so much time with her parents soon.
Comments
They pulled the 12yo from school and she's "already starting to miss having a house and a routine and friends, but we're also thinking that we don't know exactly where we want to call home yet and the only way we're going to find out is to keep travelling"
2. It's nice where I am, fuck off
However, we took ALL the kids. We home schooled them to legit diplomas, made financial plans for college, and planned for years.
Leaving one child feels kind of self-serving and off.
But some people refuse to recognise this.
Uhh math works the same in all currencies doesn't it?
This is not a news story.
I can’t say that checking out the feed improves things…
Has Tilly learned any Asian languages since the large continent of S America is all 'too dangerous'?
> Travelling illegally on a tourist visa
> bringing a child along away from friends, family and schooling
"Chang Mai is a great place tho"
Imagine the uproar if a Thai person said that about Manchester.
https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/thailand-digital-nomad-visa-and-work-permit
I believe the UK has a huge issue recently with people they claim are doing that.
https://www.publicfirst.co.uk/digital-nomads-how-many-why-and-does-it-matter.html
Awfully complicated things, visas – the things they do and don't let you do IF YOU'RE A TOURIST.
Ahem.
Perhaps Tilly can build up her life skills by getting hold of some fake Thai identity documents. Fun for all the family!
"School didn't argue, they actually pushed it and said, 'we don't blame you for doing what you're doing'."
Yikes.
School leadership might have been glad to see the back of them if all they were doing was constantly complaining!
Emma said: "I also want to be around people that are just grounded.
Jeezuz
"I also want to be around people that are just grounded."
See, it starts like this, and then they end up in a cult
Though Marr seemingly now owns the copyright to the smoths name now.
Perhaps she'll break from them and return to the grandparents with her sister. A year of school catch-up is do-able with a bit of support.