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Original poster

Are we BU to move kids to NI from SE England?

102 replies

Putyoursunscreenon · 25/06/2024 22:19

I am from NI originally and DH is English. We live in the SE due to DH's work in London. We have 2 x dcs who are 7yo and 9yo.

We've always been keen to go back to NI for a few reasons. Dh has been going over there to visit since we were 19/20 yo and loves it as much as, if not more than, I do.

DH is planning to keep working in his current job and flying back to go to the office. Possibly every week (!), but I'm really hoping he won't have to do that.

DH is especially keen to do it. I think the pressure of the cost of living here is getting to him which I absolutely understand.

Pros are:

  1. nearer my family and old friends who dh likes a lot
  2. we would be mortgage free after selling our house over here and buying something bigger, near the sea in NI (which is nuts)
  3. dh, dcs and I love it there

Cons are:

  1. further from dh family
  2. dh would have to travel for work
  3. I won't have a job there to start with. I can't work remotely and don't have the sort of skill set where I'd walk into another job if we moved. However, we could afford for me not to work for a while (or at all, but I wouldn't choose to be a SAHM long term)
  4. dcs are well settled here and have some nice friends at school. I'm worried about disrupting their lives
OP posts:
AlliumLake · 25/06/2024 22:37

Do it. We moved home (other end of the island) when DS was 7, ad while I won’t say it was entirely easy for him (English-born and very settled and happy where we’d lived), it was the right decision.

stressedespresso · 25/06/2024 22:34

As a fellow NI poster, by all means do it. Your DC are at an age where they will easily settle elsewhere. Prep schools (fees in NI are very affordable as I’m sure you know) in particular are very used to new pupils coming/going, they’d fit in no problem.

I really do think that there is a better quality of life here in terms of schooling, unrivalled access to the outdoors (within 15 mins of home I can be in central Belfast, at the beach or in the middle of the countryside!) and lower cost of living, although as with everywhere in the UK at the minute there has been a noticeable increase and many are struggling.

The only thing that would put me off is the lack of access to healthcare - you really do need to have private health insurance to live in NI nowadays. Our waiting lists are the worst in Europe.. I’ve had lots of experience of the NHS in SE England, it is genuinely like a different world compared to our crumbling system 😞

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