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Do you live in your home town...or would you move back?

66 replies

OfUselessBooks · 02/07/2020 00:34

We're contemplating a move "home" having moved away from there over a decade ago. We moved for work, and that reason is no longer there, so we're left wondering why we are miles away from our families and friends.

Where we live is very expensive, but with a lot of nice towns and places to go, close to London with more job opportunities. However, our parents are getting older and we would love to be near them and extended family. We had no ties when we moved away and it was all an adventure. Now we have a mortgage and a young family and it seems we have to make a decision as to where we want to live, having not really given too much thought to it before!

Do you live in your home town, or did you move back after a long time? How did you find it? It feels like going backwards in a way, but I'm not sure where else we would choose. Where we live we have some friends and good schools, but we only came for work really. I would miss some things, but being near everyone instead of visiting two or three times a year would be fantastic. We would only have a very tiny mortgage if we moved, so could have a much slower pace of life and more time with the kids. If you have settled somewhere else, would you go back if you had the chance?

OP posts:
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 02/07/2020 09:56

I grew up in the London suburbs. When my parents moved there, it was a very affordable place to live. We can't afford to buy there.

DH grew up in Yorkshire. We considered moving there... But the schools aren't brilliant and not suitable for our eldest DD.

Moving to another Yorkshire town instead where friends live.

weegiemum · 02/07/2020 10:03

No. I don't think it was ever going to happen after I left home (large town) to go to university in Edinburgh. Lived there, then very, very remote and rural for 1" years, and now in Glasgow. I like the extremes, but not the in between bit. Dh is from NI and as long as we never live there he's happy!

4amWitchingHour · 02/07/2020 10:05

It sounds like you have good reasons to move back - it won't be the same, but surely it would be weirder if it was!

I don't live in or near my home town, but it is somewhere I'd consider. My parents don't live there any more, but it's a decent place and good for kids - we're just tied to a different area now (and happily so) but I wouldn't rule it out if our circumstances changed. A lot of friends are still in the approximate area, if not in the actual town.

BernardsarenotalwaysSaints · 02/07/2020 10:08

No but I still live in the same LA. I wouldn't move back to the town itself, I prefer village life for the most part.

OfUselessBooks · 02/07/2020 10:10

@Jeremyironsnothing

I said I'd never come back after uni, but I did. At the end of the day, after living in several nicer places, I realised it's the people that are more important than anything.
I think this is the side I'm coming down on. I loved growing up near my cousins and grandparents. Hopefully now my kids will have the same.
OP posts:
Twirlytwoo · 02/07/2020 10:13

Nope. Both me and DH moved for work and our families are opposite ends of the country. Neither of us would ever move back to either home towns. If we lost our jobs we would easily find something else and we have made loads of friends where we are and are quite settled. Both home towns would be significantly cheaper to live (we could buy a mansion for the price of our house!) but we prefer where we are and family come and visit us and the kids after we spent years visiting them pre-children.

romdowa · 02/07/2020 10:19

I'd go back to my home country in a heart beat. Maybe live within an hour or so of my home town. Where I grew up is so expensive and I'd need to win the lotto to live there 😅😅

AdoptedBumpkin · 02/07/2020 10:20

I might do in the future as we lived in the outlying area until only last year.

beguilingeyes · 02/07/2020 10:28

No, and never.

I grew up in a small village in Somerset. Great for a child, but there's nothing there now. Robert Maxwell bought the print works that was the main employer and closed it down (and stole the pension fund). There's nothing there now.

I moved to London nearly 30 years ago and I'm never leaving.

mindutopia · 02/07/2020 10:28

Not for all the money in the world. It's an absolute shithole.

hellswelshy · 02/07/2020 10:28

Yes I do. I struggled with the decision to be honest, it did feel like going 'backwards'. Also it stirred up memories I had tried to bury regarding the loss of my DM. It was the sensible thing to do however, due to house prices for the main part, so dh & I went for it. Fast forward 10 years, and I am glad we made the decision, it's been a positive one for us and dc. Regarding the memories for me, it ended up being cathartic in many ways, as I had to confront my feelings rather than suppress them.

timeforawine · 02/07/2020 10:33

Hell no, was so glad to escape. I'm about an hour away now so can still see family easily enough

amusedbush · 02/07/2020 10:38

I live in DH’s home city and I love it here.

I’m from a small village 50 miles away and I was desperate to leave - I moved away as soon as I could. I feel like I narrowly escaped a cult! Everyone there marries someone they went to school with, buys a house in the village and has kids, who then go to the local school and perpetuate this depressing (to me) cycle. I hate going back because it’s like a time warp and it brings back awful memories. The same people all work in the local shops and it’s the same faces in the streets, a decade after I left.

I’m a city person through and through.

CatBatCat · 02/07/2020 11:20

I'd move back in a heartbeat but the housing cost is just too much which is why we moved out in the first place.

TazSyd · 02/07/2020 11:23

Nope. I’m from Blackpool and DP is from Barrow in Furness. We’re near enough to travel back for a day, if needed, from South Manchester but wouldn’t move to Blackpool or Barrow.

EveryPlanetHasAYorkshire · 02/07/2020 20:58

No and no Grin.

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