Do you live where you grew up?

[eggplant16]

I have this great longing to go back to the town ( it is a town even though it calls itself a city) where I grew up. I don't know anybody there any more. My family are all dead. Why do I have this and what to do? What am I trying to solve?

Yes, DH and I returned to the village I was raised in in late 2020, so during the height of COVID, when the lockdowns had prevented us from seeing my family for months. We had married a few months before, and were expecting our first child, we just knew it was the right decision, and four years on we haven't looked back. I have always been very close to my mother, who lives a 10 minute walk away from our house (in the same village), and my mother's sister and husband recently moved down from Durham to retire to the next village along from us - so clearly there is something about the area that draws my family!

I have spent time living away, including two years in London, but nowhere else has ever felt like home.

God no, was so glad to leave, ex mining town and was very dull. Some family still live there so i visit but i don't go to the town centre.

Within 30 miles but one day I would like to live in the same village I grew up, maybe in retirement. I would buy my old house if I could.

I do.

In some ways I would like to move (want to be by the coast) but I love the fact that I can walk down the town any time of day and see people I know to say hello to, it's quite comforting.

in a word, No. The town I grew up in is somewhere I haven’t been to in over 25 years. I no longer have any family living there since my parents moved away and no desire to have a trip down memory lane. From my 25 year old memory, it was becoming a shithole.

Yes, although I left to go to uni and lived in various different places for 20+ years. Moved back about 5 years ago.

Sort of, I grew up in one London borough and now I live in a different borough. So a different location but in the same city. I spend a bit of time in the old area every week when I take my kids to classes there. It's a nice area and always gets mentioned as a nice place to live on threads about London. I don't know any friends from back then though, I've never kept in touch with people from my past.

No and I don’t like to go back, been back a few times for various reasons, it’s more of a shit hole than it used to be. I spent 21 years of my life there, it’s somewhere in london btw. I usually only go back to central, mostly to watch ladies football, 5/6 times a year. Even though DS was born there, he’s literally lived where we are now since he was 1. Dd was born here, her and DP are the only non Londoners 😂 it’s not angelic where I live now but it’s a damn site better.

Yes. I love it. Lots of family still there. Great for raising kids. We've looked to move but we have everything we need where we are.

Yes. The high school I went to is 10 mins walk from where i live. I moved to this area when I was 9 and am 51 now. I had a year of living in Australia and 1 year living in a city 20 miles from where I live as I worked that area and still do so do get out of the area. My best school friends still live by me. My husband is also a local. My job is office work so never really had to move to look for work. Would like to move one day by the sea but have kids etc.

No. Almost the other end of the country. But when my baby was born sleeping the pull to go 'home' was visceral.

We went to stay with old school friends for a few days and visiting some old places did bring comfort.

I can't explain it other than it felt grounding.

We are currently in the process of returning to our old town after moving 4yrs ago to the town I grew up in, to be near parents and also loved to visit.

It is a lovely place, but we feel like our lives have shrunk as DH works at home and our social life is back where we came from, we also miss what the cities we lived near have to offer. We’ve found it very hard to make new friends, mainly just acquaintances through DS friends parents. Moved here in our 40s and everyone had already found their people. Only have 1 childhood friend left here.

home is a strange concept. I feel it here in the form of our house, routine, DS school and his friends, but my soul home is back where I chose to live for 17yrs and where I made life long friends, got married and had DS.

We’ll be giving up peace, greenness, independent shops and lots of period buildings for a slightly scruffy Yorkshire ex mill town, but I can’t wait.

No.

I live in a different country :).