While the GIF you sent looks cheerful, you can’t help but feel a pang of guilt you feel for being halfway around the world on your mom’s birthday. The internet age has given digital nomads the freedom to roam the world while still making a living, but that doesn’t mean all our loved ones understand our need to be away from home for so long.

We sat down with five digital nomads to find out if the expectations of families differ across cultures and to discuss how they balance visiting home with traveling the world.

Betül Yıldırım from Turkey, 35

‍Nurall: How does your family feel about you being away for long stretches of time? 

BY: [My mom] told me, “We're totally supporting you and you know this but like don't go for a couple of years. Just try to come back home once a year, to spend time with us, and then it’s totally fine.”I really feel lucky because I have their support but it’s not always easy mentally and financially. My family is really important to me so that's the deal—as long as I go home once in a while, they're fine with it.

Nurall: How do you maintain your relationship with your loved ones back home?

BY: I make time to talk to them properly at night and I try to ask them everyday, “Hey how are you?” Even though it's a little text, this helps us a lot to keep connected.

Nurall: Do you time your return home to any special occasion like your family’s birthday or Idul Fitr (the end of Ramadan)? 

BY: Yes, mostly for graduations or wedding time. My best friend actually arranged their wedding dates to fit my schedule instead of their husbands. You know the rule "sisters before misters!"

Jan Vincent Kleine from Germany, 37

Nurall: How does your family feel about you being a digital nomad and being away for long stretches of time? 

JVK: This nomadic, restless lifestyle has never been a problem for my family. We have a very good relationship and my parents have supported everything my sister and I were doing as long as we’d do it with passion and purpose.

It would be a dramatically different situation if a family member or close friend would get really ill and you would want to be close at all times. I’m very lucky that that’s not the case and I know that I’m able to get home within 72 hours from almost any place.

Nurall: How do you maintain your relationship with your loved ones back home?

JVK: Staying in touch by phone, Whatsapp, etc. is essentially the same as if I’d just live in a different city. I realize that it’s not always easy to stay connected with all my friends. It takes a lot of time and energy to manage life on the road…but when I come home and visit it’s exactly like it has always been with my close friends—as if I had never left. 

I truly value having a few really good friends spread all over the globe. Friends that I can spend really valuable time with whenever we meet. No matter if the last message was from yesterday or from six months ago. Generally speaking, I believe the relationships with family and friends have become less frequent, but more meaningful or profound.

Loes Bazelmans from the Netherlands, 34 

Nurall: How does your family feel about you being a digital nomad and being away for long stretches of time? 

LB: They would rather have me living close by, however, they kind of accepted the fact that if I would settle down it would be for them and not for my own happiness. Being open about what makes me happy and what I need in life helps others in accepting the choices I make. 

Nurall: How do you maintain your relationship with your loved ones back home?

LB: While on the road it is a lot of WhatsApp and sharing experiences via social media. So those back home can get a feeling of what my boyfriend and I are doing and what overlanding means as a lifestyle and not just as a long holiday. And even though our friends back home live a completely different life—buying houses, having children, working for a boss—it helps to be understanding, open-minded, and respectful to each other, even if you would make different choices.

Davi Massara from Brazil, 31

Nurall: How does your family feel about you being a digital nomad and being away for long stretches of time? 

DM: I was raised with my father working away, so it was very common for my family to live apart. They would never do what I do but they understand and of course, they support me. The most important thing for me is what my core family thinks, so it’s weird, for them, but they support me and they understand that I am living the dream. 

Nurall: How do you maintain your relationship with your loved ones back home?

DM: Ten years ago, I used to live abroad. It was very tough because the technology was there but it was not as fast as today. Technology nowadays makes it very frictionless. You don’t really feel the distance and sometimes you talk more to your family than you would do when you are back home. You miss seeing each other face-to-face and having lunch together, but at the end of the day, you keep in touch more.

Juvena Huang, 35 from Singapore

Nurall: How does your family feel about you being a digital nomad and being away for long stretches of time? 

JH: I got a message from my sister that [my mom] misses me a lot and upon mentioning me during a conversation with my sister, she cried. My sister messaged that day, “I think you should come home”, and that's when I decided to come home after two years on the road. [My mom] wants me to make my own decisions, but deep in her heart, she misses me. When I came back after two years, I realized that she actually worries a lot about me.

Nurall: How do you maintain your relationship with your loved ones back home?

JH: I'll try to message them whenever I’m leaving to go to a new city or town and I'll try to video call home whenever possible. More importantly on special occasions like Chinese New Year, I will definitely try to make a video call.