Nomadic Life with a Non-Nomad Partner
How do you reconcile travel and nomad life, even part-time, when you're in a committed relationship?
Maintaining a relationship while living as a digital nomad and having a partner tied to a full-time, non-remote job is no easy feat. (Maintaining a relationship with yours truly is work enough, I suspect, so it’s a trade-off!)
You might have met while already on your nomadic journey, or maybe one of you decided to embrace the nomad life after being together for a while. It hasn’t been straightforward for us either, but we’re figuring it out.
I’ve been fully remote in my work for about 20 years, save for a few on-site contracts. I’m also a mom and didn’t want to be away more than a week or two for work while they were young.
Disclosure: Midlife Nomads often refers and links to websites, apps, and products/services I actually use. Sometimes, I receive compensation if readers sign up or make a purchase. A girl’s gotta eat – and travel! ✈️
There came a point, though, where my partner Trevor and I had to have some difficult conversations and make a joint decision. We lost everything in 2017 after being defrauded in a bad business deal. Trevor received a great job offer in our hometown. It was the perfect next step for him – but the complete opposite of what I thought our next steps would look like.
And so we compromised.
We agreed he would take the job, and I would be semi-nomadic… a part-time nomad sort of arrangement.
It’s not perfect, believe me. There are still a ton of challenges we work through on a regular basis.


We’ve had arguments when I’ve booked travel and didn’t get the high-five I wanted from him, for example.