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!

Weeing myself laughing at some of these answers! Last I checked London was a city just like MANY others in the UK, and unless you plan on moving to the outer Hebrides I’m pretty sure you’ll find lots of sports centres, arenas, museums, funfairs, parks and any other activity you could wish to enrol your children. We don’t all live in caves North of the M25. Do your research. There’s cities, towns and villages bursting with things to do, not identical to London but our differences it what makes us unique. You’ll find the cost of living goes down considerably also.

Please don't come to sheffield we can't afford the property price hikes and its very ,very grim.

I dont understand why so many find this a stupid question. Yes, life in London is /can be different to living in other places. Even if you move to places where you can do the same sort of things, its still different. Probably less different when you actually live it to when you are just trying to imagine it.
What it will look like depends on where exactly you end up but I am sure you know that ;)

I live in Edinburgh, pricey for housing in some areas now but with a London budget it would be no problem. We bought our house fairly cheaply, although prices round here have gone up a lot since then. We're 15 mins from the centre of town by (excellent) bus service. 10/15 minutes walk to a beach and several large parks. Town, and the Shore in Leith have a fantastic selection of restaurants and bars. We have museums, galleries, places of interest, the Fringe & Festival, great transport links. And there is everything possible for kids really. Including a mixed bag of local schools, or plenty private options if that's your bag. Plus, when my kids are teenagers, they can easily get to where the excitement is, and we can easily pick them up! I love it here so much - I go to London for work and always enjoy it, but I couldn't live there.

We have a subscription service called Netflix that you might like.

It's got films and stuff on it.

Don't know if this would interest you. But, in the 'Public Weigh Room' (there's a special room), in the market in Newcastle, there's a women, who weighs people. You give her 20p, you stand on the scale, she tells you how much you weigh. It's a cheap day out.

@Dou8hnuts

Weeing myself laughing at some of these answers! Last I checked London was a city just like MANY others in the UK, and unless you plan on moving to the outer Hebrides I’m pretty sure you’ll find lots of sports centres, arenas, museums, funfairs, parks and any other activity you could wish to enrol your children. We don’t all live in caves North of the M25. Do your research. There’s cities, towns and villages bursting with things to do, not identical to London but our differences it what makes us unique. You’ll find the cost of living goes down considerably also.

This is the kind of answer that is unintentionally revealing.

The sheer ignorance of what it is about London that separates it from other cities.

Sure there are sports and parks anywhere but the volume of museums and galleries, the vast range and diversity of theatre, ballet, opera, music, restaurants, lectures, courses, the multiculture, the metropolis, the history: there is nothing remotely like it. The only city that comes close is Edinburgh.

@mamajunebugjones that is the kind of parenting I wish I were capable of!

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@navigatingcrumbs

Honestly what attractions do you go to in London? I gives me the fear thinking of taking my 3 year old to a museum. My older one would be fine. I think they'd like the aquarium

The Natural History and Science museums are designed for 3 year olds. Mine spent many happy hours playing in the water with the boats or filling the rice contraption or building the archway. We would always fit in a visit to the British museum where Ds was fanatical about the Inca statues. He still loves llamas and his dream holiday is to go to see the Easter Island heads.

For me I loved the fact you could bring your own food and had proper tables and chairs to serve it.

@TatianaBis

And your post unintentionally reveals a lot about you too.

Superiority complex much? Look ….anyone with at least a few brain cells knows capital cities ARE different to other cities culturally and in other ways.

But to ask us what we all DO at the weekends?

The OP was absolutely asking for it and the replies are hilarious 😄.

Thank you for so many entertaining replies! And also for the genuinely helpful ones who seem to have trodden this path before, especially those who appreciate the differences we need to consider.

Sure there are sports and parks anywhere but the volume of museums and galleries, the vast range and diversity of theatre, ballet, opera, music, restaurants, lectures, courses, the multiculture, the metropolis, the history: there is nothing remotely like it.

It's a fantastic city, but most people particularly who live outside the centre don't go in with the dc every weekend imo.

I love London! Studied there and lived there for many years. So many happy memories and stories! As much as I loved it, it was so expensive and it was never my intention to stay. Dh is from London. During pandemic convinced him to move to my hometown up 'north'. He was worried that we wouldn't have anything to do, how would dc adjust, would our lives be taken over by my family 🤣. Honestly day to day life is just the same- work, school, dc clubs. Dc still does the same things they did in London but no long waiting lists for clubs. We see my family about once a week because our lives are busy! The only difference is we have shorter commutes, less traffic, babysitters and less financial stress. We've been able to become mortgage free, so can afford a much better lifestyle. As I've been away from home for 15 years my home city has changed so much and we've not even touched the sides in terms of things to do. Great museums, beaches, parks, National trust etc.

I think the big change would be if you moved from London to a rural area. For us it's been a really easy transition.

[quote HariboMaroon]@TatianaBis

And your post unintentionally reveals a lot about you too.

Superiority complex much? Look ….anyone with at least a few brain cells knows capital cities ARE different to other cities culturally and in other ways.

But to ask us what we all DO at the weekends?

The OP was absolutely asking for it and the replies are hilarious 😄.[/quote]
And you don’t think that Londoners with a few brain cells know that acksherly there’s life outside it?

It’s only insecurity that’s makes you read a list of a capital city’s attributes as a superiority complex. It’s simply factual.

OP, although I was also irritated by your phrasing, I think the thing is you need to look at it a different way.

What are your priorities for how you want to spend your time? You could post a thread then saying “where would be a good place to live with these criteria?”

A lot of these “moving out of London” threads do seem to be based on either the idea of “out of London” meaning either a commuter town (which seems to me the worst of all worlds) or a vague “village”, when, as has been pointed out, there are numerous options.

FWIW, we live in a northern small city. It’s half term this week so we have

• been to a local museum (we live within walking distance of city centre, so don’t have to always drive/use rubbish public transport)
• pottered round shops
• been for coffee in independent coffee shop
• driven to nearby Big City 1 (about 30 mins) and gone to museum, shops, art gallery
• driven to nearby Big City 2 and gone to mega shopping mall

Most weekends we do swimming, dog walking, maybe cinema, bowling, trampolining. Have good local theatre and library, etc etc…

We've moved out of London to Hastings last summer. In the summer, what would have been hours spent in a playpark are now spent on the beach which is MUCH nicer, otherwise it's not so very different. Drama classes, riding lessons, cinema, skateboarding (the skateboarding park here is rather nicer than our one in London was - much less broken glass etc.) I miss the easy access to museums and really good theatre, but we get the train back in from time to time to do that. There's a lot more community stuff that happens here. In London we had Carnival once a year (which we loved), here we've got Mardi Gras celebrations this weekend and there's an umbrella parade for the children on Sunday with workshops tomorrow for them to make them, my son took part in a circus thing at the local theatre yesterday, there's a day when people dress up as a pirate, the bonfire thing is HUGE (and a totally different experience to going to watch local fireworks in London), etc. It's all lovely.

@TatianaBis

Nope, I love London.

Clearly the OP doesn’t really think there’s life outside of London asking us all what we do at the weekend. I mean surely the OP could expand their mind a little.

How many people go to the ballet and opera every weekend though? When you have young kids? My DS would be bored stiff if I took him to the opera. So would I to be honest.

Sure there are sports and parks anywhere but the volume of museums and galleries, the vast range and diversity of theatre, ballet, opera, music, restaurants, lectures, courses, the multiculture, the metropolis, the history: there is nothing remotely like it. The only city that comes close is Edinburgh.

And it’s quite possible to visit London and enjoy all of those things for a day out or weekend.

8 million Londoners are not all going to the ballet once a month/a year or even at all. I would guess that most are spending free time doing the same things people do everywhere - dog walking, seeing friends, children’s sports, gardening, watching and participating in sport.

Many Londoners travel to the coast and countryside every weekend.

You just decide what you want to do and adapt your life accordingly.

[quote HariboMaroon]@TatianaBis

Nope, I love London.

Clearly the OP doesn’t really think there’s life outside of London asking us all what we do at the weekend. I mean surely the OP could expand their mind a little.[/quote]
Made no comment as to whether you liked it.

It's not the OP who needs to expand their mind, it's the people who don't grasp that the sheer volume of activities & amenities that London offers means moving elsewhere represents a significant narrowing of options. You may get pluses such as cleaner air and bigger houses, but you have to weigh that up with all that you will lose. It works for some and not for others. Location is key.

For one friend who moved to a university town in Devon, tempted by the green spaces for her kids, the answer to the OP's question is that she finds her weekends very dull because there's not enough to do and the people, with exceptions, are not wildly interesting. She's counting her weekends until her youngest goes to uni and she & DH can move back to London.

I moved out of london when I was pregnant with DD, I had the option of staying out or moving out to the coast. It has been way more child friendly an environment than london ever was going to be & london is close enough if we reel them need to visit. Even though DD is now grown, we rarely go to London. There's more than plenty to do here & DD has had a wonderful childhood of beach & park picnics, festivals, camping, galleries, museums, gigs & Sunday lunches with big groups of friends & their kids & more. London would have been very different as it's nowhere near as child friendly

We sit in the fields and count grass until it gets dark because that's all there is to do here

Londoner born and bred here OP. Moved out after 30 years to small market town. Spend our time pretty much in the same way as we spent it in London.

"... the volume of museums and galleries, the vast range and diversity of theatre, ballet, opera, music, restaurants, lectures, courses, the multiculture, the metropolis, the history"

Most of those things most Londoners don't 'do' each weekend. Maybe a few times a year. Too expensive ! Life gets in the way.