We live in hotels full-time with our 14-month-old baby. We won’t be settling in the suburbs.

Digital nomads from day one

Yusuf: Early in my career, I worked as a journalist and traveled to many difficult places, covering war and conflict.

Then, in 2015, my wife and I moved to India after I got a job at the Hindustan Times. We moved to London in 2016 when I got a job at CNN International. At CNN, we noticed the critical lack of diversity in the media.

Sumaiya: In 2017, we started a project training communities to tell their stories on mobile devices, which became our media business, Seen TV. Between 2017 and 2020, we delivered training to people in over 100 countries.

It demanded a seriously nomadic life with no apartment, car, or postal address. We only slowed down in 2020 due to COVID.

Yusuf: Building Seen TV, we fought to be the opening speaker or keynote at conferences and events.

After landing the first few, we used video footage to send to other speaker events, which had a snowball effect. In addition to being paid to speak, flights, food, and accommodation were covered.

As young people on an international speaker circuit, it was an amazing way to see the world at no cost.

From 2017 onwards, we didn’t pay rent and had no direct debits, gym membership, or phone contracts. We were in a different place every few days.

Sumaiya and I would often be double booked, speaking in different locations.

We could feel like two ships passing in the night. Our marriage involved meeting in airport lounges, and it was hellishly tiring.

Sumaiya: COVID forced us to spend longer periods in a few locations and build our media company. Although terrible, the pandemic slowed our schedules, and we could develop our business.

Living in hotels with a baby

Yusuf: Since Noah, we’re still nomadic but stay at each destination for longer, between a week and a month. Our team is dispersed across South Africa, the UK, the US, and India. We continue to travel to speak at conferences, run events, and attend business meetings. We’ve no fixed address and mostly stay in hotels.

Living in hotels with Noah is chaos. We’re out as much as possible, and I do 80% of my work walking with him in my backpack. We get a better rate when booking one for 21 days or longer.

We have a different kind of village

Sumaiya: It takes a village to raise a kid, but neither Noah nor we have a traditional village.

Sometimes, I worry that I’m doing him a disservice by not having that stability. But, his experiences are positive in a different way.

Yusuf: His life is ridiculously privileged. He travels the world, hangs out on beaches, and meets people constantly. He’s even come onstage at the UN in New York to deliver a keynote talk with me.

Yusuf: We respect the people who have a permanent home and understand why they do, but settling down in the suburbs terrifies us. Provided we stay healthy, we’ll continue to live like this.

Right now, the pace is insane, but we want to keep taking advantage of the opportunities for us and Seen TV before Noah turns two.

The next priority is finding a full-time nanny to travel with us. We rarely have people we can leave Noah with, so there are no date nights or downtime. In the last month, we’ve hired nannies in some cities, which was game-changing.

Yusuf: We plan to keep traveling extensively before Noah starts schooling but stay longer in each place, perhaps for a month or even a year. Options like unschooling, homeschooling, or remote learning appeal to us rather than conventional schooling.

Sumaiya: You can build a routine without a fixed location. For example, Noah can have story time in bed anywhere. We like to swim with him daily, which is usually possible wherever we go.

Yusuf: The key is finding the right partner. Opting for a nomadic life is complicated. You need flexibility, spontaneity, and minimal materialism in a partner.