Have you ever daydreamed about leaving everything behind and traveling the world, never to return home again? While that might sound appealing to some people, if you have family who cares about you, it can seem selfish to basically run away and never come back, not even to visit once in a while.

In this story, one person’s dad plans to sail around the world and never come back, and the dad is very clear on the “never” part. Now, the adult child who wrote about the situation is having trouble coming to terms with this situation. He doesn’t want his dad to leave and never come back.

Let’s read the whole story to see if he’s overreacting.

AIO My Dad is leaving the country to sail the world and does not plan to ever return

About 2 – 3years ago my father informed me as a, what I thought at the time to be a joke, that he would be leaving to sail the world and not return.

He wanted to start small, buying a relatively nice boat and made a plan to trek some big sailing adventures around the country!

I fully supported this and continue to support this because hell yeah dad do your thing explore and have adventures.

He’s now realizing that his dad is serious.

However over the last year, my dad has had several conversations with me that all these trips he has been taking sailing for weeks to months on end have been in preparation to “leave the country, sail the world and not ever come back again”.

I feel this is maybe something we all dream about doing or being able to do, given that he is dead serious, am I realistic?

My dad and I have had several talks, not enough truly deep talks, regarding how I feel about him leaving to sail the world. And he really has not been receptive to it, or really seemed to care about my concern.

This is difficult for me as my dad has been the only consistent parent in my life and has been there since day one. I share so much with my dad, and he’s given me so many opportunities to be independent and he has provided me with the skills to make sure I flourish in life!

The dad will be leaving more than just OP behind.

Meanwhile, in light of the conversations my dad and I have had. He will not sure any specifics about him leaving to sail the world. Just that it’s going to happen and he’s leaving everyone and everything behind and anyone who wants to drop their life to come with him is welcome to.

Recently he has been looking into buying a larger 600-800k+ sailboat to make the voyage, and has recently also had some more conversations with me about how hard it will be on his girlfriend and her two kids (their relationship is 6 years) when he up and leaves in the next few years.

Now my dad is in his mid 50’s he’s getting older however I have no concerns about him being healthily able to do this as he surely can.

And hes not even being mean about it, he seems to truly not have any recognition about how it could make others feel.

The dad doesn’t seem to care about how leaving will affect anyone or anything else.

I have no other family where I live.

I have a sister as well who is disabled and whats going to happen with her? Whats going to happen with our family business?

There is so many what ifs, and when I try to bring them up they essentially seem to get a shrug or brushed off.

It does seem pretty messed up.

I have spoken to friends and some family friends about this. Its been about a half and half split of just let it go and let your dad live his life and on the other side its been he’s going to sail and NEVER RETURN? How is that even possible. That’s so messed up.

My current view on the matter is this is pretty messed up.

I could see sailing the world for a few years and like some occasional check ins, however never returning and making sure everyone knows that makes me feel like I’m preparing for the death of a parent who is still alive. Especially since he’s made elaborations on he doesn’t know how I’ll contact him either.

The dad’s mind is made up.

I know this leaving to sail the world is a few years away. So there’s still lots of time. However, he is constantly preparing everyone around him at this point that this IS happening.

I’m not entirely sure if his girlfriend even actually knows about this either.

I don’t think I need any advice or anything as his mind is made up and when I do try to talk to him it goes nowhere.

I love my dad to death but I really don’t think he is thinking clearly. If he was planning to make returns every so often I don’t think I would be upset. However he is not planning to return AT ALL. So AIO that my dad is planning to leave the country and not return?

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

It’s valid to be annoyed at the dad leaving and never planning to come back. It would feel like being abandoned.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a dad who is using the credit card companies own envelopes against them.

But is OP overreacting? Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

It does sound like he’s running away.

One person suggests asking him questions.

It could be a mid-life crisis.

Maybe it doesn’t have to be goodbye.

It almost seems like the dad is saying that he doesn’t want to see anyone in his life ever again. He sounds really selfish for not caring that they’re going to miss him or worry about him.

It doesn’t take a lifetime to sail around the world, and it’s not like the dad should assume he’ll forget everyone’s phone number. They should plan to meet up, even if it’s in another country. Actually, how cool would that be? Dad, Christmas in Australia this year?

I agree with the comment suggestion to ask the dad questions about these plans. I also kind of hope that the dad is all talk and ends up changing his mind. Until he leaves, it’s not forever.