How would you make a new life ?

[LittleSweep]

My husband and I are planning on moving from SW London to Fleet in Hampshire. We have a 2 year old daughter. I am a stay at home mum and have built up a network of friends and activities in London which I will be leaving (eeeeek). Has anyone else been in this situation - how easy did you find it to start a new life and make new friends. ? I have visions of my DH swanning off to work and DD and I rather sadly hanging around the playground trying to make small talk with random women.

bump anyone got any experiences of relocating please !!!!

I relocated when DD was 18 months old, moving 250 miles north. It took about 12-18 months to feel that the new place was home, rather than the south. To be fair though I'm not a natural chatterer.

Having a young child will make it much, much easier to integrate - but don't expect it to happen overnight. And moving out of London to a smaller community makes it easier to recognise people too, so the woman you saw at the library toddler group will stand out in the park or swimming pool. Join lots of toddler groups to keep busy and meet people, and it will happen.

Not that much advice I'm afraid, last time I moved towns I was a young, single thing!
I got to know people by taking up a college course and visiting the student bar after classes. Grown up equivalents could include book group, choir, part time job, volunteering with the Forestry Commission, or taking up a college course and hitting the student bar!

We moved from south east London to Kent when DS was five months old. I joined a mums and baby group within a couple of weeks - no time to talk myself out of it then! Second week I was chatting to a mum and took up courage to ask if she wanted to go for a coffee after the group. We went the following week. She has become my best friend and her DS is my DS's best friend too. I did the same with a few mums as a small group and we met regularly for play dates. Some of them moved on as the kids grew up and went to other schools but we get together for play dates in the holidays still which is lovely.

As Hindsight said you bump into other mums regularly in other communities. I did exactly that to one of the mums I hadn't seen in a couple of years (lives in a village five miles from us and her DD goes to a different school) but we chatted over the ice cream freezer in the supermarket and she is joining us for a play date in two weeks time when she can also catch up with the other 'ex toddler' mums.

You just have to take the initiative and, if you get a snub from one mum, move on!

I love living here and would never move back. It sometimes takes me an hour longer to get home from the shops as I bump into people I know!

As your DD is pre-school I'd go for it. However, I would do it now and not school age - I relocated with a 2 year old and a baby and it was a breeze but when I moved with school age children it was awful to settle in and make friends and 10 years on I still don't belong here.