we will inevitably fail and have to downgrade again, and again. How far can we go?

I'm thinking about buying a simple pup tent. That way I will be prepared.

It is hard dealing with stress, people saying "relax, it will be fine", are not the answer. Learn what kind of stress is bothering you, then look for ways to beat it healthy wise. Job stress people used to go out and smoke, now they chug a cola and just continue to stress until the heart attack, I am not advocating smoking, but perhaps if people took that smoke break as a short walk break it would help.

Family stress is different than work stress, one of the most over looked stress points in life, sometimes it is good to get away for a bit but then if it is stress that needed to be worked out all one does is delay the inevitable.

It takes time to learn to deal with stress, and everyone's answer to it will pretty much be different, they found what works for them, not what might work for others. Still trying out a lot of different stress relief techniques may lead to a self learned technique from them.