Digital nomads visit their parents whenever they want

Long life to flexibility

The digital nomad Luana Castro Vieira uses her parents' home in Coronel Fabriciano, Minas Gerais, as a refuge when necessary.

"I haven't made a long-term schedule of my life as a nomad. When I come back from somewhere, I take advantage of their home to do this planning", she says to No Direction Home.

This happened in her early days as a digital nomad. She had no idea where her nomad life would start. The comfort of her parents' house was fundamental to drawing the initial script.

As I wrote recently, there are two types of people: those who never left their hometown and those who went to live away. All nomads are of the second kind, which means living far from their parents.

Ancient life (and when I say it, I mean the pre-pandemic period) condemned us to work (or study) in person from Monday to Friday. Only two days to visit our parents.

It was terrible. Taking a car, bus, or plane on Friday night, arriving home tired, sleeping till late on Saturday, so chatting with the parents, eating mother's food, playing with the nephew, visiting cousins, hanging out with friends from school at night, waking up with a hangover on Sunday, going to family lunch, watching a soccer game with grandpa. Boom! It's already Sunday night, time to go back.

Less than 48 hours with the ones you love. And then face traffic on the road or a crowded airport and start your Monday tired.

For over ten years, I had this life. The pandemic has wholly changed as we were working from home. I started to make extended visits to my parents for eight, nine, or ten days. I was able to spend more time with my parents and my nephew. The pandemic was a horrendous time, but that was a positive thing.

And then face-to-face return started to erode that again. I was already working four days a week at the office. This meant I could spend a maximum of three days with my parents.

Since I became a digital nomad, all that has changed. Just like Luana, I include my parents in between my trips. Or even at unexpected times.

For instance, I was in one of my periods in São Paulo when I needed to go to the city of São Manuel for an interview. My parents' city is only 60 km away. I called my mom the same day. "Hey, I'm going to Avaré tonight, tomorrow I'm going to São Manuel, and then I'll spend a few more days with you."

I choose when to go. I decide when to come back. It is the end of the 48-hour countdown. To paraphrase the movie, we will always have a parent's home.

During my days in Avaré, besides staying with my parents, I was able to: 1) Work seeing the view of my childhood; 2 and 3) Walk in the city park; 4) Playing with my nephew (or at least watching him play with his tablet); 5) Visit my sister in Bauru