Credit: SWNS / Shoshannah Shand
Meet the 'solo mum' who lives out of a van and travels around New Zealand with her toddler in tow - and even lets her son go climbing and hiking by himself.
Shoshannah Shand, 24, set off on a road trip to visit her mum, Raawyn, 57, in New Zealand, with her then 18-month-old son, Gary, after the lockdown lifted in May 2020.
She lived out of the back of the car at first but has since upgraded to a motorhome and is always on the road exploring with her budding traveller.
The mum-of-one has always been a lover of the outdoors and lets her son Gary, now three, climb and hike with her.
Shoshannah is raising Gary in a 'free range parenting' style - with limited parental supervision - and is happy to let him run around on the beach while she keeps a close eye.
Meet the 'solo mum' who lives out of a van and travels around New Zealand with her toddler in tow - and even lets her son go climbing and hiking by himself.
Shoshannah Shand, 24, set off on a road trip to visit her mum, Raawyn, 57, in New Zealand, with her then 18-month-old son, Gary, after the lockdown lifted in May 2020.
She lived out of the back of the car at first but has since upgraded to a motorhome and is always on the road exploring with her budding traveller.
The mum-of-one has always been a lover of the outdoors and lets her son Gary, now three, climb and hike with her.
Shoshannah is raising Gary in a 'free range parenting' style - with limited parental supervision - and is happy to let him run around on the beach while she keeps a close eye.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Free-range parenting is kind of like as it sounds. You have chickens and you've got free-range eggs
00:04or you've got caged eggs. They get really offended that I'm calling their kids caged
00:08and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I've chosen to do something different.
00:17My name is Shoshana. I am a solo parent. I have been traveling with my toddler now for
00:24a couple of years and I am very big on free-range and responsive parenting so we
00:32implement that as we travel and explore. We're also really into hiking so we spend a lot of time
00:39in the hills and the mountains just doing a lot of walking. I've always loved traveling but you
00:44know I've always had real bad anxieties like I always wanted to do things but I was like I can't
00:48do this it's too hard and then when I did like a little road trip down to my mom's I was like oh
00:55this isn't so bad and I think if I hadn't just started a little bit then I wouldn't have got
00:59this far just as baby step by baby step. So yeah I started camping out of my car with my toddler
01:06and I just decked my car out to camp and it was yeah some of the best times of my life I think.
01:12I love it because we can park up anywhere and we've got home or we can go to the supermarket
01:17and do shopping and unload straight into the fridge. It adds a bit of chillness to our lives.
01:22The hardest part is that it is a lot slower than driving a normal vehicle and so we always have to
01:28add on an extra wee while to get places so a three-hour drive turns into almost a four-hour drive.
01:34He's intensely full of energy like he sleeps amazingly every night usually he's out like a
01:42light and he's also so full of energy and he's funny he's a cool kid. I get asked a lot about
01:49school and people online are very obsessed about what I'm going to do when it comes to
01:54school which always hurts me up because I was like he's only three but when the time comes like I
02:00I was homeschooled so I'd love to be I'd love to homeschool him but also I'm very open to
02:05to the fact that he might really benefit from going to school but not just any school like I'd
02:10probably find one that was more nature focused. I keep all my options open because I like to make
02:17sure that he gets what he needs not not what I want but what he needs. We have done a lot of stuff
02:24I think my favorite moments is usually the little moments you know like they're not they're not not
02:29super huge or amazing like we've climbed like up mountains and like we've camped under the stars
02:36and we have a hot chocolate together and that's always like like a real fun moment. Free-range
02:42parenting it's kind of like as it sounds you have chickens and you've got free-range eggs or you've
02:46got caged eggs. People don't really like it when I refer to free-range versus caged chickens because
02:52they get really offended and I'm calling their kids caged and there's nothing wrong with that
02:56it's just that I've chosen to do something different.