52 Ideas For Your Version Of A Grown Up’s Gap Year
How To Run Away and Other (mid) Life Handy Hints – Feel more like yourself again – without turning your life upside down. Our First Year Birthday Celebration.
A leading voice for the Sandwich Generation — the women holding everyone's world together while quietly losing their place in their own.
I’m Monique van Tulder.
If you’re being squished between ageing parents who need a little more help, kidults who haven’t quite launched, and a long-term relationship that needs nurturing — you’ve landed in a corner of the internet for women who’ve done everything for everyone else and are starting to wonder, very reasonably:
“Hang on. Where do I fit in all this?”
I write, speak, and advocate for the Sandwich Generation. Us. My work is practical, useful, and evidence-based. No fluff. No guilt. I speak to the experts to get us answers. Real-life advice to help us reclaim some space, to hear ourselves breathe. Plan our next bit around those we care for and love.
Real tools to help you reclaim your place in your own life.
– AS FEATURED IN –
Listen to Monique’s Guest Appearance on the ABC Brisbane Drive Show with Ellen Fanning.
Yellowshelf Podcast Appearance
A Grown Up's Gap Year — The Sandwich Generation Podcast
If you’re being squished between ageing parents who need a little more help, kidults who haven’t quite launched, and a long-term relationship that needs nurturing, you’ve landed in a corner of the internet for women who’ve done everything for everyone else and are starting to wonder, very reasonably:
“Hang on. Where do I fit in all this?”
A voice for the Sandwich Generation. Us. Evidence-based, practical, and completely free of guilt. Because you also need space to hear yourself breathe.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year - THE NEWSLETTER
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Newsletter #28
If your brain is already halfway to the holidays, this week’s A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast episode is an armchair ticket to a Greek Island.
I’m talking with artist Desiree Prinsloo, who divides her time between Sydney and the island of Hydra – and who describes mid-life as middle youth. I could not love this sentiment more.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Newsletter #27
If I’d stayed in that executive role instead of doing all of this – work we would’ve had to outsource at real cost – this is roughly what the financial picture would look like.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Newsletter #26
A busy season for all – end-of-year work finish line, gift buying, festive meals, perhaps holidays to pack for… phew.
Wellbeing Travel Guides
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – WellBeing Escapes
Sydney day sessions and carefully curated wellbeing trips to places like Kyoto and the Whitsundays. Think circuit breakers, not life detours.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – Kyoto
Reinvigoration. Real-life escape. A four-day circuit breaker for women ready to put themselves back in the picture – this time under paper lanterns, amid temple bells, and sitting for a very good hot coffee.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year – Sydney Day Sessions
Register your interest in Small-group, in-person days (harbour beach location) in Sydney that feel like a cross between a strategy session, a wellbeing consult and very honest conversation with women who get it.
A Grown Up’s Gap Year Retreat – The Whitsundays 2026
Reinvigoration. Real-life escape. And a three-day/four-night circuit breaker for women ready to put themselves back in the picture.
Join the Sandwich Generation conversation
Get a Free copy of the mid-life reinvigoration Ebook
When I hit mid-life I was in for a rude shock. I found myself at the top of everyone’s ‘people we need’ pyramid, & the bottom of my own. An ‘Eat Pray Runaway’ moment – left a still unanswered question.
What to do with my second- act of life?
I’ve jotted down a few ideas in the attached eBook – a starting point.
