Talk to me about real life outside London

[Herewegoagain84]

We’re considering the big move out. I’ve been a Londoner all my life and always considered I would stay, but I’ve got a third child cooking and I think it’s time. I know it sounds mad but I’d love to hear what your life outside London is like - especially with children at the weekend. We have everything so accessible to us here and always plenty to do. Can you talk me through how we might be spending our time and what activities you do / how weekends are spent? If you lived in London previously was it a good decision to move? Thanks!

I'm genuinely baffled by this question! What do you think people who don't live in London do on a weekend?? They go to swimming lessons, dance classes, music lessons, sports clubs, out for lunch / dinner, play in the park, visit museums and tourist attractions, go to the beach, friend's birthday parties.......I think the only thing that really differs is how long you might spend driving to such activities depending on where you live.

I take my kids to fields to chew straw at the weekends, to entertain them.
We don’t have swimming pools, football clubs, Stagecoach, museums, cycle paths, play parks or friends to visit here outside the M25.
What do you actually think we do with our kids at the weekend? 🤣

Have you never visited outside London op? Unless you are going rural then city life is more or less the same wherever unless you go visit tower bridge and the houses of Parliament every weekend.

@emmathedilemma 🤣 loving our crossover in activities!

Can you talk me through how we might be spending our time

Well, how do you want to spend your time?

@Cocomarine that was after I mopped up the soup I'd spat out!

Do you think they have soup in London? 🤨

I would imagine your weekends would be exactly the same as in London, unless you are planning to live in a hut in a forest.

Where do you want to move to?

We send our kids down the pit at the weekends

Depends if you live in a city or not.

What sort of thing do you want to do?

MN is truly crazy atm.

I’ll humour @Herewegoagain84 though.

Last Saturday my 8yo and I…

• collected a friend and lift shared to their football match
• went straight to a tennis lesson after
• had lunch in a café
• kept other child for an afternoon play date
• made an early dinner together
• went to the cinema

Is any of that possibly in that there London?

I've heard of the London bubble but this is just bonkers.

Do people who live in London honestly think lofe outside of the capital is so vastly different.

@Herewegoagain84

We’re considering the big move out. I’ve been a Londoner all my life and always considered I would stay, but I’ve got a third child cooking and I think it’s time. I know it sounds mad but I’d love to hear what your life outside London is like - especially with children at the weekend. We have everything so accessible to us here and always plenty to do. Can you talk me through how we might be spending our time and what activities you do / how weekends are spent? If you lived in London previously was it a good decision to move? Thanks!

What would you do on a normal weekend now? Where would you be looking at going? The rest of the UK is quite large and varied, and what might be available in e.g. Milton Keynes (don't knock it!) is quite different from what you might be doing in rural Cumbria.

But as will no doubt be repeatedly pointed out to you, the rest of the UK don't spend their time staring slack-jawed at sheep. Mostly.

I lived in London for 5 years and moved out before having kids. No regrets at all

@WellThatsMeScrewed

We send our kids down the pit at the weekends

Would that we still had an open pit. Lucky you and them!

We sometimes go into the nearest city (we’re rural but it’s only 30 mins drive, quicker than a London suburb to Westfield) and wander round Primark at the weekend. I’d rather go down t’pit.

I'm out walking the whippets every hour god sends, that or darning our dad's cloth cap.

@SockQueen we have some great sheep to look at here. Don't knock it.

Horse riding lessons
Meals out
15min train ride to nearest city for shopping museums meals
Family gathering/parties
Swimming
Soft play
Parks (5min walk)
Drive through Costa
Dance classes

Im baffled why this would be different from london?

I live just outside Manchester/peak district area

There’s a field of sheep 5 mins walk from my house. But as a toddler, my daughter always wanted to go to see the ones in the City Farm. I did used to live in London though, so that might be inherited? 🧐

Swimming, park, coffee shop, walk, bike ride, tv, take-away, occasional treat (cinema, zoo, museum trampolining, trip to beach/ national trust). Basically exactly the same as in London only I don’t have to book everything months in advance or leave at the crack of dawn to avoid the bastarding M25. Oh and the walks are more varied as I can get to about 5 country parks/ woodland areas in in less than 25 min (2 on foot).

On Saturdays I drive my youngest into the middle of the countryside and leave him there. He has to make it home before the door gets locked for the night at sundown, or he's on his own. I'm toughening him up so he might survive life in Glasgow.

What do you do at the weekend?

If you want to have access to similar opportunities then consider moving to a smaller/city large town, rather than a village. We live in Cambridge and have swimming, football, dance schools, river rowing, theatres, cinemas, museums ice rink, restaurants, parks and pubs mostly within walking distance.

In a more rural area some of these things might require travel, but you might have better access to countryside walks, horse riding, mountain biking etc. So it really depends on what you enjoying doing.

In my experience (lived in London for 5 years) there aren't many things that are exclusive to London. The big exception is public transport, which is generally much better in London than anywhere else. Many villages have no train station and only a handful of buses a day, if any.

Actually. I don’t think many places will be that welcoming to someone with as inward looking and backward an attitude as yours. If you think there aren’t the same theatres/parks/classes etc in other places then you won’t get very far.

I suppose you’re probably a troll though. Noone can be that thick, can they?