If you could raise your kids anywhere in the world..

[bluebellbuttons]

.. where would it be and why?

Small town in rural Ireland, have lived all around the world, cities and bush and this is where I chose to raise my kids, best decision I ever made

Guernsey isn't bad. Low crime, compact without being tiny, good schools, nice beaches. But expensive.

@7Days @GreyTS Awwwah I love that we all Love rural Ireland 💕 we are rural but also coastal, it’s so beautiful here! I thank my lucky stars my dc are growing up with tin whistles and hurleys!! I’ve grown to love Ireland more since I’ve moved back for sure!! Even my uk born dh loves it here, he loves the freedom, the banter with strangers, the fact that the school does surf lessons as part of PE. And the sense of community is second to none...I know it’s not the same all over Ireland but it works for us!

Exactly where we are. Next to the beach, Roman town with ruins, close to hills and mountains for hiking, watersports, snow; good small primary school in catchment (no uniform, no £1 mufti days/world book days/Xmas fairs type crap); 1 hour cheap train to major city, great food, nice people, safe town.

We're in Spain. DS is tri-lingual (Catalan at school, Castellano everywhere else, English at home), does rugby, swimming, athletics after school, robotics and chess club at school, cheaply. Weather is great, we were in t-shirts today. I can get an emergency gp appointment for the same day.

Politics is giantly fucked up, Catalan independistas rioted last month and Puigdemont is a coward. But, swings and roundabouts!

Canada

I lived there for 3 year as a child with my grandparents (who I adore and very rarely see because they still live there). They now live in the rockies but brought me up in a lakefront cabin about 2 hours outside of Toronto, we had the beautiful, quiet, rural scenery but were still able to visit the city. I would move their with my family in a heartbeat but dh loves his job and the people he works with too much, hopefully some day.

The rural Highlands or Orkney. I just want a quieter life in a more remote place now.

Or Inner Gall, maybe Fraoch-Eilean where hardly anyone lives. The peace would be brilliant

Innse gall, stupid autocorrect doesn't like Gaelic

We're in southern Germany. Ticks all your boxes except the sea one.

I think it's brilliant for kids here, similar to the scandi countries but not as cold. It's actually much hotter here in summer than the UK. I have experienced actual seasons for the first time ever! I only wish we were closer to family. And that I was better at speaking German.

Somewhere like where we live now but with
Better weather
More of an ethnic mix
Much better SEN provision
A wider variety of takeaways.
I do like our Victorian house though and the city is nice in many ways.

Where we are right now, in the Caribbean.

British overseas territory, massive close knit community, beach, outdoor lifestyle, kids rarely stay indoors.

It's perfect for right now, if I had a choice of a larger country, probably Australia.

I'm with Lipper, 7Days and Greys. I've raised mine in a small town in the rural west of Ireland. There's no better place in the world. Moved here from the UK 20 years ago with Irish DH & have no regrets whatsoever.

I quite like where we live (Midlands), but I’ve always said if I had to move anywhere else it would be the Netherlands. Love it there.

@saraclara it’s definitely way more relaxed! But it comes at a cost. After a while you start to go mad. It feels like there isn’t anyone to talk to and like no one is doing anything interesting. Probably because all the interesting people left for HK, UK, US etc. But on the other hand it’s much easier to create your own little bubble there. Big house with a decent amount of garden between yourself and your neighbour. Pretty streets and parks to go for walks etc. But not everyone from Britain can cope with Australian manners (or lack thereof). DH can’t stand to go out to cafes etc because the service is pretty useless in comparison to London and people generally don’t hold doors open or think about where they’re walking etc. I’d only ever recommend it to people who are either not very bright or very introverted and very introspective. I’m of the later category and even I felt like I was hitting my gear against a wall sometimes, a feeling which is quite easy to escape in the UK.

@Velveteenfruitbowl

Oh dear! I had to laugh. Not sure where you are from in Australia but none of what you just said rang true for me. Particularly the manners bit and I came from Sydney and live in London. I have now lived here more than a decade all up (two stints) and I am constantly amazed at the lack of service and manners here. And the lack of awareness of where people walk/stand here is notorious .

Not sure I think the education is better in UK either (that depends on schools in your area in both countries). Maybe there is more assistance if your child has special needs but I have no experience of this in Australia either. Certainly, apart from a handful of universities here that have the reputation, Australia has some top universities that are used as benchmarks for other UK unis in the work they do.

No. Many other Australians are over here for the proximity to Europe for the travel and cultural elements or this is where their work led them. And many go to Asia as expats for the money and the ‘expat’ lifestyle. You must have had a shocker of a life growing up in Australia to have such a skewed perception.

Another vote for Costa Rica. It’s paradise!

Only big disadvantage though is that it’s horribly expensive and you can barely survive on the salary of an ordinary local job (or so I’ve been told).

We chose Sydney. Which is where we grew up.

Happy as can be with how the kid's lives are.

Vancouver was a close second.

@Winesalot Sydney is probably about as good as you get but it’s still a bit grim. Probably doesn’t help that you get a lot of thickos from Britain moving so they can love it up in Bondi 🙈. With schools it’s more that you hit a ceiling in Australia which is equivalent to the lesser private schools here. You just don’t get quite the same calibre of person coming out, probably because it’s less competitive? Also not helped by the really interesting people withdrawing entirely in an attempt to avoid having the same conversation over and over again. There’s an awful lot of echo in Australia. It’s a small world.

I grew up in Australia but choose London where I am

Australia. Love the sun and relaxed life. There are actually a lot of little towns to live in that don't require you to farm.

Although I’m glad I have the option to go back if we want to

It's interesting that my priorities are (like most of you) somewhere that's good for the kids but for me that means quite a big, developed area with enough of a population to have good SEN provision and ethnic diversity.
Mind you, I'd go spare on a remote island anyway!

Bavaria, where DH is from.
By the time he talked me round the dc weren’t at an age where it would have been easy but I do regret it, we should have gone before Dd started school.

Bertiebots just seen your post and now I’m even more full of regret!!

London or New York City. I’ve brogiht my children up in London and genuinely feel they are so lucky and privileged to have that opportunity. Rural life is my worst nightmare so this suits us perfectly