Those who moved away from home: what was your reason(s)?

[unamullian]

Just that really.

I've never moved away from my home town but my husband and I have decided that we just want to get out and start afresh somewhere else. We are moving 7 hours away (by car). I've already got a job offer and he is currently in the process of looking.

I'm not sure if anyone thinks my reasons are valid but mainly

1. I've no reason to stay. I don't have any friends except one but she always makes excuses when we plan to meet. I don't have anyone else who I see and talk to really except my parents who I talk to every day on the phone

2. better area and better educational prospect for my DS. I am also thinking of going back to college so I think that's another reason why.

What was your reasons and did you regret it? I'm a bit worried about the move but we have to do it. It's now or never!

Surely that's what happens? Your DC move away for university or work and don't come back except as visitors. I could actually see DD moving back to the area where I originally came from.

we moved 300 miles down south for work, over 15 years ago. Never looked back. My family still live up north and we visit often. It's only a four hour trip though, not seven. Seven is a big old car journey, so I imagine you'd go up a couple of times a year tops. I can't imagine staying in the same town forever, however fantastic it is. There's a big world to explore and how do you know you wouldn't be happier elsewhere?

To get out of the tiny rural village I grew up in where nothing happens, yet everyone knows everything about you.

I had to escape. I would have gone mad, plus I never would have been able to buy a house, or have job opportunities. Everyone in the village tends to work on farms or in one of the two factories that border the village.

My mother was an obsessive Roman Catholic who wanted to control every aspect of my life “to save your immortal soul from eternal damnation“ Could not wait to get out of that door!

Left home at 17 for uni, never really went back apart from holidays. Met dh at uni, got married then moved with work and for an "adventure" to a really remote/rural place. Planned to stay 6 months-1year but ended up staying 10 years, buying s house, having 3 dc there.

Moved 13 years ago to another city where we have stayed ever since. It's just over an hour to my home town, a ferry journey/flight to dh's (NI) and that's close enough! Kids are true Glaswegians now.

We kept our remote, rural house and are going back there next week for a break - we go often, not as much as we'd like. There's a chance dh and I will retire there. That's home to me.

Uni then work then back to what was my nearest city growing up but I’d never move to the town I grew up in because I HATED commuting into the city and most work requires that. By living in the city dh and I cut our travel to 20-30mins which is so much better for family life with school pick ups etc.

I've moved many times, I've lived in another country for a few years too. Do it, be prepared for it to take time to establish a new life, be patient with yourself and each other. Going to a new job/college will give you both easy ways to make connections and friends in the new town.

We have moved loads. 3 different counties, 6 different counties in the UK. Mainly for work purposes, partly just because we wanted to (we actively sought out roles in Madrid as we really wanted to live there for a while. Haven’t regretted any of it.

For those of you who are parents how would you feel if your children moved away and never came back?

Firstly, I’d hope that my children never feel tied to one place so that they don’t upset me. There’s a big wide world out there.
Also, DH’s parents moved abroad away from us when we were pregnant with DC1, so they obviously don’t have huge issues with it. We still have a very very close relationship with them and see them regularly.

Actually, I hope to hell my DC don’t stay in the are we’re currently in. It’s dull.

*area

Love

I wanted to get away from my mother. I moved abroad at 18. Never really went back to my home town.

Rural living was fucking awful and I couldn't get away from village life fast enough.

From the city to the country (2 5 hours away)
Cheaper cost of living = More space, better quality of life, fresh air, green space.

Our jobs are transferrable so that was fine

Because in the rural South west there was no decent tertiary education, crap all professional job prospects and a narrow minded insular culture

Moved away for uni, then moved to London for work. Have spent my adult life moving wherever my dh's work took him, though always insisted it was within range of my home town (ie never more than 2.5 hours away). I do still yearn for my hometown and am becoming the age when I am starting to think about retirement plans, but I can't decide if it would ever be right to move back 'home'. I think it probably would be a mistake.

Re my children, I would love it if they all lived close to me, but I have no expectation that they will. I don't come from that sort of background.

I moved away (escaped) from my grotty little home town to go to university in the big city, and never really went back, except to visit family.

When I visit now, I realise that I have almost nothing in common with the place or people, which is a bit sad, because I feel rootless.

Uni and then work.

I will never move back to my ‘home town’ because of work and because retirement in London will be so much better for public transport (Freedom Pass) free activities (galleries, museums) access to choice of cinemas for cheap pensioner screenings, proximity to GP surgery and hospitals, trains to everywhere, good friends.

I joined the armed forces at 17 and I've never lived in the UK since until last year.
I didn't return to my home town when I came back.
My kids are scattered all over, both in the UK and abroad.
I speak on the phone to my parents most days, as my kids do with me and their dad.
Next year I will be going abroad again to live permanently.
I can't wait.

Dh was a submariner and was based in Plymouth. No point being in Hampshire when his job and home were in Devon.

I would feel like I'd failed if my kids felt that they needed to live near me as adults 'just because '.

Home is where the heart is. It really is.

I found my Home Town when I was 28. I now live in another country from it but it's where my heart is. My parents live in another country again.

People saying why would you stay where you were brought up, things like; not having money to move, having responsibilities, family support with children, not being able to afford uni education and accommodation fees away from home, health issues.

It isn't my personal experience but don't be so judgmental of people who might not have the money of social capital to move away. In my experience its way easier for middle class people to make these moves.

What nonsense. Do you honestly think that most people who have left the place where they were born throughout human history have done it because they were middle-class people oozing social and other capital? Most people who have ever emigrated or put significant distance between themselves and their place of birth have done so fleeing poverty/lack of opportunity/unemployment/war/famine and seeking a better life.

Sometimes you don't have enough money not to move. That was certainly the case for a huge percentage of my generation who left our home country in the 1980s because of mass unemployment.