There are a few sentences that feel illegal to say out loud when you’ve built your whole identity around travel and flexibility. (And, saving money, too).

“We’re considering joining a country club in Colombia”, is one of them.

Let’s take a step back.

As many of you know, we moved to Bogotá, Colombia last year. And, just for the sake of mentioning it, we were pretty broke when we left Portugal to come here.

But, things turned around a few months after we arrived. Hana got a full-time job, and we quickly joined a community here through our daughter’s school and other friends that we’ve met.

And, now we feel that we have a home for the first time in a long time. (Even though everyone keeps asking us when we’re going to leave.)

One of the perks of living in Colombia is that the kids have loads of days off. (Okay, this is actually sometimes a downside, but it's nice because we have ample opportunity to travel without feeling bad that we’re losing out on what we paid for her school.)

But, sometimes, we just don't want to go anywhere.

After all, one of the nice things about living abroad is that the whole city and surrounding towns feels like we’re traveling most of the time, anyway. But, we like being in our routine, And, since we have help here, it's hard to be away from that, especially while our kids are so young.

But, last Sunday, a friend invited us to ‘The CLOOOB’ (as our daughter pronounces it in her accent), and we had the BEST. DAY. EVER.

To start, in the U.S., we would never be country club people.

Max WORKED in a country club — long summer days, standing up, serving on rich, old men.

And, though he never let me work there myself, my dad has managed a busy restaurant in Long Island for the last 30 years. Long hours away from home, we have a lot of respect for people who work in the service industry.

Point being, we would never even imagine we would be the type of people that would even see the inside of a country club unless we were working there or someone very generous invited us.

Now, for context.

As Americans living in Colombia, the situation is, of course, a bit different.

Country clubs and other sort of private clubs and memberships are popular here (yes, mainly among wealthier people and expats).

As many people still feel places in Bogota are dangerous — and, cities can be congested (Bogotá is very green, but there aren’t a TON of parks) — a country club is a place where kids can run free safely without parents needing to look over their shoulder every two seconds. We can have a few hours to chat with friends, eat a hot meal for a change, and just be outside.

A lot of us say the worst thing that can happen is they’ll fall.

You can’t exactly say this while hiking through the Amazon Rainforest or walking through the streets of New York City.

Anyway, the one we might join also has free classes for kids and adults, a small nail salon to get a massage or nails done while the kids are playing, two restaurants, countless playground equipment, events etc. It's almost like a vacation where you don't have to parent! (We didn’t know where our kid was for at least 45 minutes, but we knew she was safe.)

The only times we have gone so far is when someone has invited us or they have open days.

And, we feel so rejuvenated every single time.

Look, as traveling parents, you know that either you stay inside and the house becomes a disaster (or Airbnb or hotel or wherever you’re staying), or you go out and likely will experience a handful of meltdowns and probably spend more money than you intended to.

(Because we all have to negotiate with our toddlers, right?)

And, even though we’ve spent more money on hot chocolate and ice cream that I am embarrassed to admit, we haven’t joined yet because it's still very EXPENSSSIIIIVEE.

Anyway, it’s quite a shock to us that we’re honestly even considering this.

Flexibility was always our M-O. Having the ability to get up and go and explore new places was how we structured our lives.

Joining a country club seems to be the opposite of that, but here’s why we don’t think so.

The same way travel changes once you have kids, everything else starts to feel more intentional too.

Quite frankly, with what we might spend on the country club membership, we could probably take a trip somewhere decent in Colombia. (Or, get about the same amount of hot chocolates and ice cream).

But, then there’s the packing.

The checking to make sure they’ll sell the diapers or formula we need wherever we’re going.

Then more packing.

Then ordering stuff last-minute because things in Colombia cost 5x the price as the U.S. and I’m not paying $100 for swim floats again (I had to do this when we went to Santa Marta last week.)

So, what does this mean about who we’re becoming?

We’re not sure.

But, as parents who travel and live abroad, we have changed a lot of what we do and how we do things.

What we mean is, haven’t we all spent a little more than we intended to in order to make our lives with kids just a little bit easier?

Especially while living abroad or traveling?

And, isn’t part of the reason many of us choose this lifestyle in the first place is so that we have more intentional time with our kids? So that we can have more time for ourselves, too?

We’re not failing at traveling with our kids. We’re just making the most of parenthood.

And, getting to see the Andes Mountains from the Club is a nice perk.

Have you ever paid for something you would have never paid for prior to having kids in order to have the convenience?

Do you do things now with your kids that you would have never considered before becoming parents?

Comment or send a reply to let us know. We’d love to talk to you!

If you haven’t opened it yet, be sure to check out the Roammies Directory! We update it when we can (for now, once a month), with flexible and short-term daycares, indoor playgrounds, co-working places, and other family-friendly destinations around the world.

If you have a place you want to highlight or an experience you want to share, please get in touch!