Family Trades London Chaos for Backpack Life, Discovers Kids Still Complain
KEY POINTS
- â˘In July 2024, Lisa Lucas and her husband rented out their London home, storing belongings to live via backpacks.
- â˘They lived for months in Japan, the US, and the Netherlands, enrolling their daughters in local schools with unique cultural adaptations.
- â˘The family bonds grew through adventures and hardships, including coping with school drills, language gaps, and a grandfather's passing.
In a bold July 2024 move, Lisa Lucas and her husband rented out their London house, stuffed belongings into storage, and boarded a bus to Heathrow with just two backpacks and a carry-on. Their grand adventure? Year-long family sock-packing chaos across Japan, the US, and the Netherlands. Tsukubaâs local school welcomed their 8-year-old despite her limited Japanese (âarigatoâ mostly), where kids walked alone, changed shoes indoors, and cleaned classroomsâa cultural plot twist. In New York's Great Neck, the girls faced non-uniformed, aggressive morning routines and unnerving active-shooter drills, all while riding a yellow school busâsomething out of a sitcom reboot. Leidenâs canals, bikes, and garden plots capitalized on that extra minimalism: Lisa rocked one black maxi dress through jungles and alleys, proving if you pack light, you can survive anything except homesick sobbing kids longing for friends and routines. Oh, and celebratory grim January birthdays on Thai beaches, heavy family moments in the States, and a craving to return home with a blender in tow, rounded out their barely contained chaos.
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Adults rent out their home, live out of backpacks globally, thinking kids will love itâkids choose whining and missing friends instead. Spoiler: backpacks donât hold solace.
Who knew that swapping school uniforms and packed schedules for volcanoes and cycling canals still wouldnât fix the universal kid complaint: âCan we go home?â
At least the parents get to wear one black maxi dress and call it minimalism, while the kids turn foreign school routines into daily drama episodes.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 2/23/2026 | Author: Lisa Lucas
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