Aibu to not want to move up north

[time2changeCharlieBrown]

My dh has been offered a great job opportunity a high payrise
the catch is we have to relocate up north near Leeds
so my main concerns is the weather
I hate winter, rain and snow and up there seems to get more?
also I joined a few online community groups recently to get a feel for it and learn about the areas and what’s around
all I have mainly seen is awful things about robbery’s and car theft and violent crimes! It’s really putting me off!
we have a son who is not too far off an age to go clubbing and for nights out and even though he is 6 foot 5 he’s very striking looking mixed race (Greek) and I worry about him being a target and our eldest daughter too also very striking ,but both quite naive as we currently live in a small village and don’t often go into big cities and they are at small schools.
my dh is from a different town up north not too far from Leeds still has friends there and says it’s fine and all city’s are the same and the kids will be fine as not in any gangs and unlikely to be. I am a worrier so Aibu to not want to move?

Yeah the "striking" comment made me laugh. Maybe OP thinks all Northerners look like snaggletooth crackheads as opposed to her attractive kids.

I won't disagree but presumed @time2changeCharlieBrown has capital behind her rather than being a renter. I could of course be wrong.

@time2changeCharlieBrown just been looking at rentals in the nice part of the city, £1500 upwards I'm looking at LS1 the business district. So if you're a renter that's something to consider.

My DS paid £1400 pcm for a furnished flat in Britannia street. It was re-let at £2k a month two years ago. 2 beds

And by the way, as well as all of your other prejudices, the north of enhksnd isn't done hotbed of racism. In fact I'd get my mortgage that a multi-cultural city like Leeds is far more tolerant than your village idyll. So even if your kids were mixed race - which they are not - they'll be fine I'm sure

This surely has to be a wind up?!

Yes, and all short, stunted by a diet of gruel and the unremitting drizzle.

Rather contradictory the the northern posters claim to be friendly despite becoming snippy over anything remotely like criticism. 😂

I feel snippy about this @Missamyp and I'm a midlander living in the south east. Go figure

@Missamyp tbh people who post here can be from anywhere. Just say they're superior Northern.

I think you will settle in here as will your children. You've the choice of Leeds and York for your children's university. A word of warning from my son's partner make sure that the school they attend has a sixth form. Some are booted out because there is no sixth form

It's more self deprecating humour because we've heard it all before, so we pull out all the typical stereotypes we've grown up hearing.

Most schools in my northern town don't have a sixth form ,we do have a huge sixth form college a huge technical college next to each other though.

Well when posters generalise and slate the whole of the North, it does grate a bit.

😂😂😂

I think she said budget was very decent, £500-600k, so will easily find a nice big house in one of the further out villages. Plenty of the villages have their own train station, if that's how they're commuting in to work, or good for teenagers wanting to meet friends in the city. I'm just not seeing what the city centre has to offer that would make OP's husband suggest Kirkstall or Headingley, especially if they're wanting a village vibe over city living. There's probably more shops and restaurants at the many shopping centres and it's easier and often quicker to nip on the motorway to White Rose centre, Thorpe Park, Xscape etc since the city centre is quite car unfriendly these days.

To be fair, that is far more in keeping with the stereotype of inbred Devon yokels

Yes, unfortunately there is some anti-white racism but you'd get that in some communities down south too. Just pick the area you live in carefully and you'll be fine.

Just to put my two penn’orth in (don’t bother claiming you can’t understand what I just said OP)…

1. In response to a PP who claims Huddersfield is awful (or words to that effect), I live there and it’s really not! Like lots of towns it’s centre isn’t in the best state, but it’s starting to see some investment again and has everything you need day to day (supermarkets / high street shops / parks / etc). Like most towns, there are nice suburbs, with lovely communities and round here the bonus of fantastic house prices. Huddersfield / mirfield / Brighouse are all on train lines to Leeds, and have easy access to the M62 for road travel. Leeds / Liverpool / Manchester all in easy reach for city life and airports etc.
2. We do have ‘striking’ (read: good looking - we noticed the false modesty OP) people in the north, including those from mixed race backgrounds. Your kids may be stunners OP, and good for them if so, but I sincerely doubt they’ll be so unusual as to attract that much attention 😂
3. Village life is available here; in fact it’s probably as plentiful as in the SW. Commuting villages a-plenty, so you should find something that suits your wish list, if you can bring yourself to write one in between dreading having to visit the dark and terrible lands we inhabit…

All in all OP, in case you hadn’t figured it out for yourself, I think YABVVVVVVVU; not for being cautious about relocating, but for your reasons and attitude. Like PPs have said, I’d worry more about your kids’ education etc than our crime rate and weather.

Just don’t be too surprised if you see a sign saying ‘OP is not welcome here’ on the outskirts of the villages you deign to consider; we might not be totally backwards, but we are pretty proud, and we don’t take kindly to uninformed, narrow minded criticism of our beautiful north!!

We all know that, no doubt @time2changeCharlieBrown does. It’s a wind up.

Let’s be honest, the same desirable places will be trotted out as usual. Harrogate, Ilkley, Chapel Allerton etc. People falling over themselves to tell OP where is ok to live with artisan bakeries and a new branch of Gails.

There are shite areas though. Lots of them. Yes there are lovely highly expensive places to live and you wouldn’t know you weren’t in Guildford or T Wells. For many of us born and bred northerners those places are absolutely unaffordable.

If you’re visiting Ilkley, York or Harrogate, you must make a stop at Betty’s Tearooms . Enjoy your trip😀

I think some people are being harsh on the OP, many of us have misconceptions of what goes on in other areas of the Uk. My friend once wound up a southern colleague ( who had never ventured north) that we still
had outside toilets, and they believed it.

Edgy 😂

Never heard of Gails, had to google it. 😂

I don't feel like the OP is cut out for genteel old Harrogate.

You don’t have to live in central Leeds - look at the small villages in the surrounding area.

You’re giving Southerners a bad name with your comments. Your DC’s could easily decide on a northern Uni or get jobs up there.

Leeds is an incredible, vibrant city, I'd love to live there again! (Yorkshire born living in London now.)

Open your mind, it's a cracking part of the world.

Other way round. West (Lancashire) wetter than East.