Moving areas during a pandemic?

[Igglepigglesgrubbyblanket]

I'm part way down the process of moving from London to the outskirts of a smaller city. It will mean much lower crime (lots of kids get mugged round here & there is knife crime mainly related to gangs), there'll be much more space, big nice detached house with a giant garden compared with a nice terrace here and we'll be nearer family. The downsides are that well be leaving behind some really great friends (both mine and the kids) plus a once weekly very long commute for me.
What are your thoughts on making friends and settling into a new area during a pandemic? Is it madness? We've moved a lot before and had no trouble in this sense. The kids are age 10 and 12, one outgoing lots of hobbies the other more self sufficient/ slower to make friends.

Is the 12 yr old the harder to make friends? I’d worry a bit if that was the case.

High school seems a lot harder to make new friends in our experience.

Are you buying? Might be hard to buy and sell atm. You might manage one end but not the other.

Yes, the 12 year old does find it harder, or I should say takes longer to make friends. He is a nerd and I'd probably try to get him involved with local nerd stuff (RPGs, Warhammer etc...) although he is also more likely to be the one that gets mugged in our current area...
I think maybe whether the sales on the particular houses work out might be our deciding factor.

I have two dc at secondary and I’ve found friendships come and go in the early years and settle down by yr 10/11. For example, my eldest was in a tight knit group from primary, some of them ended up on the other side of the year so lost touch that way, and the others went more to the dance/drama side while my dd did music. So they slowly drifted apart and she has now made a new group of friends. It was like a slow painful breakup at times though!

Also new children that have moved into the school seem to have made friends easily.

We are also thinking about a move next year when the eldest moves for 6 form but then I would need a yr10 place too. Do you have school places in the new location?

Presumably, you’re thinking long term, so better quality of life, open spaces, but facilities in the town, better housing etc.
When I was teaching, it was very often the students who came into school knowing very few people who made friends more easily, because they didn’t have primary school friends with them. I guess it’s a bit different moving into an established group, but even if it takes longer for your child to make friends, is it worth it for the other benefits that you’re moving for? I think I’d go for it.

I wouldn’t want to bring children up in a dodgy part of London. So I’d definitely move and hope for the best in terms of making new friends.