Thoughts on moving from England to Florida

[Decisions2023]

Other half wants us to move from England to his home town in Florida. He has family and friends there etc and he can keep the same job. We have a 9 months of baby and the move is making me nervous. The thought of making my child American is making me nervous as it would become his home and all he knows. I'm not sure if I'm thinking rational. We are not well off and the thought of making this big decision on my childs behalf makes me anxious/nervous.

Do you think I would be putting my child at an advantage or disadvantage?

Thanks in advance.

Unsure if already posted but try a comparison site like

www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=United+Kingdom&city1=Orlando%2C+FL&city2=London&tracking=getDispatchComparison

that's a very cool site! thanks.

Even in my job (and I’m lucky it’s a well paid career job) you couldn’t pay me to move to the US. It’s a great country to visit, but you have little to no work protections, healthcare is insanely expensive and that doesn’t even touch on their bizarre gun laws. Plus Florida has very bad drug issues and people with addiction issues are everywhere. It’s not somewhere I’d chose to relocate with my family.

I would never vote for Ron DeSantis, but try living with Gavin Newsom's policies - they're a lot worse for the people of his state to live with than DeSantis' are for the people of his. California is turning into one giant homeless shelter.

I lived in America for nearly 15 yrs. There are many places I would happily live again. I haven’t spent a great deal of time in FL but I doubt that, right now, it is one of them

I agree this is a nonstarter legally unless you are married. If you are, would your DH consider somewhere less reactionary, close enough to FL that you and his family could visit frequently? Decent flights (ie, better quality than Ryanair) are cheaper in America. FL is not that long a trip from New England, PA, and especially MD, VA and NC. Charleston, SC, Savannah and Augusta, GA are lovely historical cities in slightly less reactionary states than FL and Atlanta GA is buzzing. My preference would be New England but of course it is furthest

There is a lot of exaggeration on this thread about the risks to the average DC of school shootings (as unspeakably horrific as they are), the difficulties with health insurance for the middle class (employers and ObamaCare for them, although it is undeniably bad for the poor), etc. You need facts

I live in California, SF bay area and your statements about CA are completely true. Crime is rising at unbelievable rates, and our ultra liberal, progressive politicians are the enablers. Homelessness and drug addiction are out of control. No decent intention of solving any of these problems. They (politicians) seem to aggravate these problems to push their left policies.

Florida is - too hot, has massive violent crime rates, is ultra conservative, is full of fucking guns.
inhave been many times and NOTHING would persuade me to live there. It’s a shithole. Yes, all of it.
tricky for you though, as he is from there.

And the drugs. I don’t know a single US family who haven’t had a family member affected by/ addicted to drugs and/or prescription meds. The opioid crisis has really hit some states very hard- Florida being one of them.

‘We are south coast. My kids know one long bell is fire bell and 5 short bells is lockdown and what to do. Its standard in the UK now.’

Thats rubbish, which school? Also south coast here, work in Education with schools and there’s not a SINGLE school in the county that has lockdown drills. Not one.

I am south coast too and a teacher and it is standard.

This is accurate as far as I’m concerned too. Love the States, I spend a lot of time there and would consider moving perhaps - but not to Florida. Adding to the list above, the public school education system there is one of the worst in the country.

Are you married? The visa process is long and expensive.

As a woman of reproductive age I wouldn't go anywhere near the US due to the draconian policies on abortion that could criminalise a miscarriage. Not to mention healthcare, guns and car culture.

I wouldn’t. I know people who live in Florida and they generally want to leave.

the work life balance is shit, people are going crazy over politics, it’s racist. unhealthy ridiculously over priced. People are incredibly angry.

I would get divorced before moving there

Schools in England are supposed to practice Lockdown Drills once a year.
They don't tell kids it's because of shooters but they use other reasons like an unleashed dog getting onto school property during the day and the playground needing evacuating.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1114577/Emergency_planning_and_response_for_education__childcare_and_children_s_social_care_settings.pdf

Says non-statutory but there's been other threads where people have experienced it once a year too.

Health insurance check that out first

Move to the U.S. they said. It will be fun, they said. 😆

I’ve taught in a number of school in various parts of Scotland. The only drills I’ve ever seen are fire evacuation drills. The people commenting “all schools in the UK do them” are talking rubbish.

We're in London and my daughter's primary school had lockdown drills, but not her secondary

Florida is a bit like Hell with less interesting people. I wouldn’t want to live there. All of New England and upstate New York is nice bar some of the burnt out mill towns is nice. Florida has serious illegal drug problems.

My understanding is that Florida is a bit of a dive, so if I was moving to the US it wouldn't be my first 5 choices.

It sounds like you need to talk through this in a lot more detail though. I'd write a list of key considerations i.e. cost, ability to find work, housing, medical care, environment etc and discuss them all.

Only then would I feel like I was ready to make a decision either way.

My understanding is that Florida is a bit of a dive,

Florida is the size of Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg put together. And a bit more. It's a huge state. Some bits are rough. Some bits are not rough.

My worry would be if your relationship breaks down and you might not be permitted to move your children with you back to the UK.

‘Schools in England are supposed to practice Lockdown Drills once a year.

They don't tell kids it's because of shooters but they use other reasons like an unleashed dog getting onto school property during the day and the playground needing evacuating.’

No they don’t. And I tell you that as someone who works in education and Ed policy, in actual schools at county level, in England.
And how dim witted do you think secondary school kids would have to be to think that any drill like that ( which doesn’t exist) would be because of a dog??

‘They don't tell kids it's because of shooters’

They don’t tell them because we don’t have shooters. Far more likely to have trouble from an estranged parent if anything.