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Original poster

Were you living in your forever home when you first had kids?

117 replies

CDloop · 30/08/2023 21:41

I’m not pregnant yet but we only live in a small house at the moment and we’ll have to move at least once or twice. I love the idea of buying a forever home and having all your babies… but it feels unobtainable in this day and age what with interest rates! I would be interested to see whether most people do or don’t, at the point of having babies? Thanks.

OP posts:

ValerieDoonican · 30/08/2023 22:43

Like many pps we moved into a dump when expecting dc1 and fixed it up in bursts throughout their childhoods. Its been reasonably habitable in between the exhausting flurries of activity, but bits still reamin to be fixed including, shamingly, the entrance hall which is still grim.
Kids both grown up and left now!

We thought it would be our forever home but actually its ridiculously big (especially the garden). So our task now is to finish the jobs, put it on the market and downsize.

With hindsight , I wish in some ways we had bitten off a bit less and got a smaller place that could have been properly nice while the kids were still here, and that would alao have worked for us into our 70s and 80s too. But we were dreamers.

30 years later I have leaned that dh, love him though I do, is ludicrously unrealistic and I adjust all his prognostications accordingly now....

LostMySocks · 30/08/2023 22:45

Yes. But only because I didn't meet DH until our mid thirties so we bought together just before DS1 was born when I was nearly 39

Octosaurus · 30/08/2023 22:46

No had first baby in 1 bed flat. Moving to another interim small home because not sure where I want to put down roots yet. But I'm not worried because it's not a money thing it's an indecision thing. Sure the baby or young kids won't care where they live anyway

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Families

givingupchocolatemonday · 30/08/2023 22:48

Nope, my DD 4 had lived in 3 houses since she was born! We're about to move to our 4th (first time buying) so hopefully this will be the one she has her childhood memories in

HipTightOnions · 30/08/2023 22:50

No, I still don't feel I'm in my "forever" house. My DC are in their 20s!

Defaultsettings · 30/08/2023 22:51

No. I don’t believe it he concept of forever homes is right for me.

We live in house on a fairly new build estate. Walkable distance to shops, schools and amenities. Perfect for our family now. Once kids have left home it will be too big for the two of us. We will move somewhere smaller in an area that suits us as a couple rather than a family.

elQuintoConyo · 30/08/2023 22:52

We're still renting, DD is 15yo. 'Forever Home' sounds so sickeningly twee. We'll stay here until she finishes uni/further studies/ aprentiship/whatever, then downsize. Perhaps fuck off to the Spanish Pyrenees and live in a small house with a garden for goats.

Goldmember · 30/08/2023 22:53

No, we lived in a small 3 bed semi on a busy B road but it was in a really good area, opposite a good primary school and walking distance to an excellent high school. We ended up having a baby the year after we moved in and stayed there for 15yrs even though we had outgrown the house only because the location was so good.

gogomoto · 30/08/2023 22:54

No rented flat, moved 7 times in 9 years due to work/landlords/buying. Anyway there's no such thing as forever, life changes

43ontherocksporfavor · 30/08/2023 22:54

We are now 50s and I cant bear to think about where we’ll be forever. I might still run away with the circus!

SunRainStorm · 30/08/2023 22:54

Oh I wish.

I am so jealous of my parents who still live in the house they brought their first baby home to.

When I grew up, you'd finish school with 90% of the children you started with. Now, it's so common for children to attend multiple schools as they move because of housing.

When I had baby #1 we were living in a run down hideous two bedroom flat.

Baby #2 came home to a new build townhouse, which we have now out grown.

I am hoping the next house is the forever house...

caban · 30/08/2023 22:56

I think we're in our 6th home since my eldest was born! This is the last one though (I hope).

WearyDeary · 30/08/2023 22:57

No. We lived in a 2 bed flat when we had DC1. Moved to a 3 bed lower villa 6 months later. Conceived again 6 months after that and then moved to our forever/long term home when DC2 was 5 months. It's been a crazy 3 years!

gogomoto · 30/08/2023 22:57

@43

Us too, we are plotting our escape from perpetual rain and complaining, probably won't move instead renting out our house out

DinosaurOfFire · 30/08/2023 22:58

Nope- on our 3rd home since starting having our 3DC, and our 4th home since we got married. I anticipate that our next house will be the one we stay in for a long while, but this one will do for the time being! Eldest DC is 11 and I see us staying put for another couple of years.

SoundsLikeAYouProblem · 30/08/2023 22:59

No.
We moved when pfb was around 10 months old. We loved the house but couldn’t put up with noisy neighbours any longer.
Next house was for 12 years.
Here 7 and we are looking again.

CaseSolved · 30/08/2023 22:59

No.

We moved into our forever home when eldest was 10 and youngest was 3.

Anywherebuthere · 30/08/2023 23:01

No and I still wouldnt class my current home as my forever home. I'd like to sell up and buy elsewhere one day.

wejammin · 30/08/2023 23:05

No. We were renting a tiny 2 bed 90s 'new build' when DC1 was born. Bought our first house 2 years later when DC2 was 6 months old - a 2 bed terrace. Moved into our family home 6 years later when DC3 was just turned 1.
Not sure if it will be 'forever' but no plans to move for a while.

Tintackedsea · 30/08/2023 23:06

DC 1 and 2 = tiny (really, really tiny) rented, off grid cottage
DC 3 = damp, two bedroom rented house

Bought the house. Doing it up. DC 1 is nearly 10.

You just crack on, don't you? Flipping heck if you waited for life to be perfect when would you live!?

TinyRebel · 30/08/2023 23:08

I didn’t think we were, but as it transpires, DH seems to think we are. Living in a small 3 bed semi with three kids (large age gap between the two of the same sex who share) one loo/bathroom. He refuses point blank to move and spend more than the 1/12th of our monthly income we currently spend on the mortgage.

UsingChangeofName · 30/08/2023 23:10

No, and I can't think of anyone that I know that was. Me and my peers had our dc in the 90s. I don't know anyone who would have expected to be able to afford the sort of house they were later able to achieve, so early in their careers it was at the time they were starting families, no.

USaYwHatNow · 30/08/2023 23:12

Our DS has just turned one, and we currently live in a 3 bed semi. We are in the process of moving to a 4 bed detached. We intend on having one more baby and then that will be us in that house hopefully until we retire and possibly downsize.

cocksstrideintheevening · 30/08/2023 23:12

No, and no one in my peer group either. We've all moved on as nursery / childcare and it working ended as kids got older. Now the trend is downsizing due to divorces.

WithIcePlease · 30/08/2023 23:13

No
Then we moved to a forever home
Then to another
I'm moving again in 2 years but I reckon I'll run out of rope on the next one!

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