Behind The Scenes—Teen Child Of RV Vloggers Shares Struggles Of Nomadic Lifestyle And Longing For Independence

"Have you ever seen the harry potter movie scene where his 'room' is the under the stairs and thought to yourself 'wow he actually has enough room to sit up in bed and a door.'"

Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• September 28, 2024

YouTube family vloggers are a hot-button issue online. Some accuse the heads of these households of exploiting their children for clout.

Others were concerned for the children's safety and privacy. A sub-group of these vloggers are those who describe themselves as "nomad families."

They live in recreational vehicles or refurbished large vehicles equipped with beds, makeshift showers, toilets, and kitchens. As illuminating as these vlogs have been, living in RVs most of the time is not as fun and exciting as the influencers make it out to be.

An 18-year-old recently wrote an anonymous post on Reddit to share what it's like to be subjected to the whims of her influencer parents. OP's life changed when she was seven, and her parents decided they should live in an RV to travel around the country.

OP's dad works remotely, while her mom is a vlogger. She is famous enough to be occasionally recognized and makes enough content that is followed around by a camera, which is a part of OP's day-to-day.

OP also said she made her account anonymous because she has gotten enough attention in real life and was "sick of it." OP has a list of issues with her RV life.

She still sleeps in the tiny bunk bed she outgrew years ago. Her stuff is crammed into the unused bed, and her only relief is she has no other sibling to share the space with.

She managed to convince her parents to enroll her in online classes after years of homeschooling.

She doesn't have friends because they don't stay long enough in one place for her to meet people. She can't get a job, and, therefore, doesn't have an income to move out of their RV someday.

OP tried to talk to her parents about their nomadic lifestyle countless times, but they were convinced that how they lived was the best and questioned why anyone would want anything else. OP said she was tired of everything and couldn't wait for the day she could say goodbye to the lifestyle her parents chose for them.

OP received an overwhelming amount of sympathetic comments from Redditors. Some of the comments even said her parents neglected her.

Others recognized the dire situation and asked OP if she had relatives she could ask for help.

In jest or in earnest, some commenters suggested that OP make her own "story time" vlogs so she could earn enough to leave her parents.

Mostly, they were all eager to help OP find safe options to leave her parents' RV.

9 days later, OP shared a hopeful update after thanking the Redditors who convinced her to search for her estranged maternal family.

OP got in touch with her grandma, who was appalled by what she had been through. OP was also introduced to her aunt and uncle.

They shared why they were not in contact with OP's mom. She currently has plans to leave her parents and move into her aunt's house as she figures things out.

In the same post, OP called out the Redditors who tried to figure out who she and her family were. She understood why they were curious but said it wasn't in her best interest to dox herself.

OP was encouraged to be careful around her new family. She acknowledged that and said she was shown proof of why her maternal family cut ties with her mom.

OP said her escape plan could still change, but she was confident with what she learned about her maternal family so far.

Even the possibility of leaving her parents' cramped RV was enough for OP to feel hopeful.

This was OP's response to a comment that discouraged her from leaving her parents without notice and making the biggest mistake of her life.

A helpful commenter gave OP a detailed step-by-step on how she can keep a paper trail of her voluntary departure to avoid any legal issues should her parents raise an alarm.

Redditors had a lot to say about family vloggers/influencers. They said it was abusive for parents to constantly broadcast their children's every waking hour as they couldn't legally consent.

One chilling comment advised against OP making a video of her departure because her parents would use it for content. OP said it was unlikely she would post any more updates unless anything drastic happened.

Chelsi