“I Don’t Have a Single Friend” — Child of RV Family Influencers Speaks Out, Torches Lifestyle

Van Life. RV Living. Nomads. You've seen the social media accounts posted by individuals who have freed themselves from the shackles of the traditional way of life. Get a job that you don't necessarily like in order to pay for a home that isn't your first choice. Even if you marry someone you love and care about, you don't really get to enjoy much time with them.

You think to yourself: There's got to be a better way. Some believe the answer is to adapt to that #NomadLife.

Except this Redditor, who doesn't think that's a good idea at all.

A user on the app who uploads under the screen name @Educational-Army-915, went viral on the site's r/self sub delineating their abysmal experience as being one of the children featured in one of the many RV families who document their "adventures" and daily lives for folks on the internet looking to vicariously satisfy their wanderlust through the content of others.

The Redditor said when she was 7 years old, too young to have any say in the matter, her parents decided to move her family around in an RV. Logistically, this setup works for them because her dad has a remote job and her mom dedicates her time to curating and uploading content.

However, it doesn't seem like she's having the best time with this lifestyle. She said that while her mother wasn't a huge e-personality, she was "big enough that [they've] had a camera shoved in [their] face for as long as [they] can remember."

The Reddit user added: "For my privacy’s sake, I won’t say anything else on that, and I’m using a throwaway account because I’ve gotten enough attention already and I’m sick of it."

She bluntly described the drawbacks of living inside what is essentially a tour bus.

First, there's the lack of comfort. For years she has had to sleep in a bunk that she says she's long outgrown. All of her belongings have to fit in the other empty bunk space, which she says she wouldn't even have access to if her parents decided to have another child at any point.

Her lack of privacy also extends beyond her online persona and mother's consistent content creation: OP says that she doesn't even have a curtain to place around her bunk.

She added that she was home-schooled for most of her life and was only able to attend high school online after insisting to her parents that she do so.

Sadly, because they're constantly traveling all the time, OP says that she's never made a single, consistent in-person friend her entire life.

That's because they've never stayed put in a single place for more than a month at a time. This has also severely limited her job opportunities, she says. Due to the nature of her lifestyle with her parents, the young woman says that she needs to find a way to make a living online.

And unless she's able to do that and set up her own bank account, she doesn't really have a shot at saving enough money to eventually move away from her folks.

It's not like she hasn't brought up these concerns to her folks, either. According to the Redditor, her pleas fall on deaf ears because her parents are thoroughly convinced that the nomadic life is the way to go.

She added that she's positively sick of going on morning hikes, constantly coming into contact with bugs, dealing with excessive heat, and always traveling with a camera stuck in her face the entire time.

"I’ve traveled around the U.S., yeah, but god forbid I want to have a normal life, go the college, or maybe even make some friends? That’s asking too much," she says at the end of her rant.

One of the top comments, with some 3,300+ upvotes was from someone who recommended that she hit up 1-800-runaway to get away from her family. "1-800-Runaway provides a list of programs that will provide housing and supportive services. We help people like you every day," they wrote.

Others sympathized with the teen, who expressed that they're treated more as their parents' "pet" who gets dragged along for their adventures rather than someone with their own agency and dreams they'd like to have realized.

Someone else recommended that she maybe reach out to relatives to see if she could live with them for a while until she's able to get on her feet and support herself.