to be considering moving to...

[townmouseorcountrymouse]

The countryside.

Not sure if it's the right thing for our family of 5 about to be 6.

Need to move to a bigger house as we are in tiny 3 bed at the moment.

The choice is with the budget we have, a flat in the city near the kids school which would mean they could walk home from school themselves and we'd be near everything including dh work. For our money we'd get an OK flat but nothing great and I'm worried we'd be cramped.

or moving to a village of 1500 ppl 45 mins commute from the city where we'd get a huge house with playroom, dining kitchen, modern decor etc - loads more room - but obviously the pain of the commute each day. There is a school in the village but kids don't want to change school.

Any advice very welcome!

[jojane]

We live in a village, a large 3bed house with study and playroom. Previously we were in town in a large 2 bed flat.
Our flat was lovely, very big and right in the centre of town BUT once we had kids it was a pain not having a garden, nowhere to hang out washing, etc. I love where we live now. DH has about 50min commute and the kids school is a 10 min drive but the village is lovely and friendly, can open door and let kids play in garden wirthout having to pack bag etc (with a newborn the last thing you may want to do is traipse to the park whereas I could sit in the playroom and feed the baby and watch the others in the garden.

[bubblecoral]

45 mins isn't a long commute at all. My dp does that every day and loves it because it takes half the time it took in his old job.

It is a long time for the dc's though, and if they don't want to go to the local school, which is understandable at this point, it will be harder for them to get used to living elsewhere. It wouldn't just be school that was so far away, it would be all their friends, the activities their friends do etc.

A move sounds like it would be a good idea, but if it were me, I'd be making my dc move schools as well unless they were in important exam years.

[FabbyChic]

How would your children be able to see their friends if you moved that far away from their current home?

Surely you factored into it when deciding to keep giving birth the size of the home you had and could offer your children.

[buzzsore]

I think they should change schools if you move out to the country, after all, it'll be really tough seeing friends out of school (not to mention after-school activities) at that distance, and harder to get to know people in the area.

[emmspemms]

I would move to the bigger place in the country and the children will have to change school. You didn't say how old the children are, but I think the long journey to and from school would be awful.yUpu don't want to move to a village and be the new family who think they're too good for the local school.