Do you regret leaving your home town?

[sandrasimuchassi]

I left my hometown in Scotland at 18 and never returned. The type of work I have is only found in London so I had to move.

I miss knowing somewhere like the back of my hand. I miss having family all around and friends from school days.

But, I wouldn’t be the person I am now if I hadn’t moved. I wouldn’t earn anywhere near as much and I enjoy London life.

God no. Can't imagine still living there.

I left my home town 21 years ago at 18. I never knew it inside out because my school and friends were actually a 45 minute bus ride away.
I've been back this Christmas and am always a bit wistful because I've got so many family members there, and none here, and friends are increasingly flakey and not worth the investment of my time. And it would be great to live near mum as she ages....or would it? Or would it actually be a neverending hell of expectation management and overstepping of boundaries?
And my family members are getting older, and there are multiple people of boomer age, but quite a small number of the next generation, so I'd actually be surrounded by older folk.
I wonder at times, in my glum moments, if i have I isolated myself a bit? Don't know.
Without moving here I wouldn't have met DH, I wouldn't earn what I do, we wouldn't own the house we do and wouldn't live in a national park. So probably best that I did overall.

I left my hometown just over 30 years ago and have relocated twice. I do miss some relatives and friends that are still there. It is however a rural backwater that has horrendous travel issues to get to and I didn’t want to be poor, that was it basically. Relocating twice has forced me to make friends, it’s quite sobering bowling up to a place where you know no one. So I know far more people that I ever would have and have been able to do far more than I ever would had I stayed put . I did not want to get stuck with a home area husband and nor did my friends.

No.
All my family still live there but I absolutely love where I live and the life we have, I would never go back permanently.

Left 34 years ago - I left because I wanted more and every time I go home - even when it’s fun, I can’t wait to leave.

I'm conflicted. I'm not sorry I left as DH and I have had a great life and been able to live out in the country to raise our family.

But now that I'm older and retired I wish I had the ability to move back at some point as I miss my two cousins who are really more like sisters. I don't want to move now because DH wouldn't want to live there and our adult sons live near us and I wouldn't move away from them. But my hometown has become unaffordable, the home prices have skyrocketed to the point where we'd never be able to buy anything there, not even a little 2 bed condo, without having to take out a large mortgage. And rent prices are astronomical, too.

I’m from South London. The only thing I used to miss was the tennis, but it’s all corporate stuff now. I wouldn’t (and couldn’t afford) to go back if you paid me!

I left my (very remote) home town at 18 and haven’t lived there since. My studies were my ticket out. Still have family there but it takes a full day of travelling each way to get there. And while it is a very beautiful place, it is also incredibly dull when the weather is bad, which it is most of the time that far north.

God no! From a small town in the midlands that could be the same one as mentioned by another poster. Can objectively see it’s not a bad place to live but I found it so boring. Have a few family members and the odd friend still there and it just doesn’t seem to have changed in the nearly 30 years since I left except it’s busier.

I regret not leaving my home town sooner! 😂

No ... I have happy memories but my DPs moved away when they retired and my siblings have also moved (all of us in different directions) .. my school friends have also all moved away. It's actually a very highly desirable place to live now ... when we lived there it was much more "ordinary" ... couldn't afford to live there now even if I wanted to.

No...but I'm back here now. I think everyone should leave their home town, if only for a short while at least once in their life as I believe it makes you more well-rounded and less ignorant. But I think if you have good healthy relationships with parents, it's also good to move back which is what I've done. everyone is different though and I appreciate this wouldn't work for everyone! But I have noticed a lot of people who have never left their home town often appear to be meaner generally and less good at mixing with all different types of people. So I definitely see time away as a positive!!

No way. I get deeply nostalgic for it and have friends there still, so go back from time to time. Day 1 of any visit, I am in love with it and want to stay for ever. By end of Day 2 I am clawing the furniture to get home to somewhere less parochial.

I left my large home village when I was eleven as we moved with my father's job to a new place about fifty miles south. We lived in this particular village for the next three years and l do not remember it with affection. I was much happier in the next house in a small town about fifteen miles away. At eighteen, l moved out to study for my degree, went back afterwards and moved to the London suburbs when l got married at 24. We lived there for the next seven years and moved back to the small town where my parents still lived after our three children were born. It worked out well, but I never felt, as a teenager or when I returned with my children, that it was my forever home, although we were mostly very happy there. Last summer 26 years after we had moved to the small town and with the children grown up, we moved about 100 miles away. We go back regularly as my mother and oldest son still live there and we have friends. They also stay with us quite often. It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get there. When we go back l always feel it is nice to visit but we don't feel we belong there anymore. I will stress that we have generally had a very good life but I am glad we moved.

I left for university, then moved abroad to study and live and work in different countries for 26 years before returning for a job and to spend time with elderly parents (DH’s are also here). It’s been a difficult transition, I’ll be honest, but a worthwhile one.

No, at least not what it has become, a rather less vibrant seaside resort, with lots of drugs and other issues, plus a small elite who rule the roost.
I have no family or friends left there and couldn’t afford the same sort of property anyway.

Sometimes. But I don't think I would have ever been able to buy a house there - one of the most expensive places in the UK. My family are still there but almost all my friends have moved away. I enjoy visiting, and part of me would love to have a little house there, but it's busy with awful traffic and I prefer where I live now, not least because I'm near the sea.

Yes and no. I grew up in Hackney and while I don’t miss that area I still miss London as a whole.

I was born in a London Borough, I moved away around good 20 years ago as did all my friends and family. I honestly don't recognise the place anymore. It bears little resemblance to the place I grew up in, the shops are different, the pubs have closed, the road layouts have changed, more housing etc.

I have fond memories but I no longer class it as home, just a place where I grew up.

No. Not at all. I left the village where I grew up 40 years ago. I have visited friends there fairly regularly since I moved out. It’s a dump! There’s nothing to do there. The neighbours have either died or moved elsewhere. The village is full of new people who are extremely rude. I have no plans to move back to that grotty hole

Where I grew up is fine but my mum is awful. I wish I'd moved much further away, although work kept us near London. I could have moved the opposite end of London though. At least I live in a different area.

Same, @Ragwort, I don’t know anyone there now!

It’s a beautiful area and I miss the scenery, but I’d be starting from scratch connections-wise if I moved back.

Nope not at all. I've moved twice since. I'm settled where I am and it's only up the motorway 1 hour away

DH came to London for uni at 17 and only went back home in the vacations because he couldn’t afford to stay in London. He met me 4 years later and we visited his parents regularly while they were alive. But since they both died we have never been back. He doesn’t feel the need or the desire. My mother left Manchester at the end of the war to come to London and always missed it and always felt (and sounded) like a Mancunian.

No pull at all for me. Left to go to college and never moved back. Home counties tedium.

DM moved away after DF died. DB1 was furious. He wanted to buy the house but couldn't afford it. Good thing. He was even more furious when the people who bought it off DM went to sell it. He described their perfectly sensible improvements as desecration.

Now he would move back in a heartbeat.