Do you ever hsve the urge to live in your home town?

[Twopizzafriday]

I’ve not been back for around 18 years…lived there from birth until 23, when I then travelled lots and lived abroad. The last time I went back was before my family moved house to another area of the U.K.
I had my whole childhood, amazing teenage years and early 20’s there. I’d always wanted to travel and live abroad and thought I’d be back one day…I never returned to live. My immediate family don’t live there now or I suppose I would have been more likely to have gone back. I still have a few good friends there, but many are scattered everywhere. I’ve been dreaming about it lots recently and my old house and my old life as it were. I’m mid 40’s, is this normal?
Did you ever move away for a long time, then move back?

No, because I didn't have one - born in the suburbs of Melbourne and lived in half a dozen over fifty years. I don't think of childhood suburbs (most of which I don't remember) as a home town - Melbourne is too big and sprawling to have that feel, imo. We moved so often I always felt rootless. Still am, but I like the smaller city I live in now and wouldn't go back.

Have you read coming up for air by George Orwell? The main character goes back to his home town. Worth a read.

Yes, I do, occasionally. It's just an ordinary town in Scotland but it's friendly and has all the amenities I'll ever need and it's within easy reach of good transport links, and my parents would love to have me living on their doorstep. But DH would hate it and we're quite settled where we live now.

I do see that my home town has a lot going for it and if I hadn't grown up there I probably would have moved there by now! But too many memories, and not all of them good.......

Nah. My hometown was like Trumpton back in the day - community feel, historic market town, a bit rough around the edges but cheerily so. Now it's like a suburb of Hell - people stabbing each other in taxi queues, all vape shops and bargain booze... 🙁

I think the difference kicked in when the mines closed.

I've ended up nearby but not in the same town. I started coming back to the area regularly when my parents were getting old and ill, and that reminded me how much I love the area. However, the town itself has poor transport links, a vibe that is not my vibe, and a lot of social issues, so I wouldn't be comfortable there. I'm now in a town that I really love, and I can visit places that mean a lot to me really easily.

No. I used to feel it closing in on me when I went back to visit family. Much as it was sad to lose my parents, the one good thing was that I never had to go back there again.

I would hate to live in my home town again. I had a good upbringing there, but I don’t even like driving through there now.

I did move back (not UK) in 2019, having left in 1993 to study abroad, and lived in lots of different places, including London for ten years. It was a work opportunity that brought us back, plus a desire to see more of our parents (DH is from the same place) and have our child grow up in our culture, but it’s been a good decision, even moving just before Covid. I wouldn’t say it’s straightforward encountering the ghosts of your child self at every corner, but it’s been interesting. Very few friends left here, though — we all emigrated. I had to make new ones.

Yes because it is West London and now not dull but gentrified and would be much easier for work. I have thought about it but my DH didn't grow up there so not keen he prefers North London where he grew up as a child but it is completely disneyfied now and more a tourist attraction than a place to live!

I'm always happy to go back for a visit, but pretty much everything I loved about the place growing up has gone. It's now little more than a bland dormitory town for Leeds - there's little real sense of community, almost all local industry has gone, and house prices have skyrocketed.

Me too! Moved away at 18.

Yes I'd love to move back. Can't afford it though.
My mum is there.
And my siblings all there. But I won't let that put me off.

Yes I moved home last year after 9 years away and sooo happy I did. Only wish I moved back sooner!

My 'home town' is a very small, remote island. I can't say I feel the urge to move there, I don't think my teens would be up for it either.

No. I can't afford it, neither could my school friends and it's dull. It wasn't particularly interesting when I lived there, it's more dull now and it's just a dormitory for the nearest city (which has also changed drastically in the last 25 years)

It does have nice trees though. Great place for tree appreciaters

My parents and sister have moved away. No family there but some friends from school. I go back every few months.

It’s a commuter town fairly close to the city I now live in.

my friends are all happy living there - it is quite pretty but everyone knows everyone and people are very focused on appearance and money. It’s very, very gossipy and judgemental.

it didn’t suit me at all and I am glad I left.

Bedford? Hell no its a shit hole. I live on the coast in the west country now.

Ha! Hated my home village - thought it was unbelievably boring and limited. Lived in London for 13 years, abroad for 5 years after that, then ended up moving back in with my mum and 2 kids when I got divorced. Ended up buying in home village. I absolutely love it ! It’s a bit boring, overpriced, not very pretty, but for some reason (and maybe this is me not there - “wherever you go, there your are”) I feel real contentment. It is my home. Ugh 😩 ha ha

No, and not just because I live in Australia.

I have family there, a run-down old mill town though memorably, my brother after going on a cruise, compared it to Palermo. So you can imagine how shit Palermo is - never been there but it made me laugh.

I had occasional pangs, despite it only being my parents left there and none of my friends. It intensified once I had kids, and a few years ago I moved back after twenty years in London. I love it. It feels like home.

No. I am fond of it for brief and occasional visits to family but it is a significant journey to make. This is home now. I remember feeling acutely claustrophobic as a teenager and never went back for more than a few days after I left for university. I always, always knew I would need to escape from a very young age. It always felt small and suffocating. I wanted more. I was 💯 right - and 40 years later am grateful to my younger self for for having the presence of mind to do it when many around me stayed.

Occasionally I have an anxiety dream that I have to move back. If I think about it too hard in my waking moments it makes me feel anxious too.

My life now is so different to the life I lived growing up that I genuinely couldn’t go back. Career, lifestyle, the sheer variety of people/places/culture, amenities, education, healthcare, hobbies, social life, There are so many daily joys and opportunities here that couldn’t and wouldn’t be replicated there.

Yep. We moved out two years ago as we couldn’t afford to buy there. We are desperate to move back. Only 20 minutes away but we hate where we are now.

I don't think anyone can guarantee anyone else will feel the same...I couldn't wait to get away from the area I grew up in, and at 18 was able to move away. I moved to another part of the city, had a whole life there of my own away from my parents...then inexplicably sold up & moved a mile away from where my parents live. I never thought I'd see the day.

The whole time I was there, I was kicking myself for moving, yet loved the house I was in and had spent a lot of money on it, so didn't wish to move. Added to which, all my work was local. In hindsight, I should never have bought a house that was located where it was, but I fell in love with it at first sight.

After about seven years, fate eventually intervened, by sending me some appalling neighbours, which meant I had no qualms about moving. I was torn between moving to a much better part of the same district, or moving back to the area across the city, where I felt I'd carved a life for myself when I was a late teen.

I went for the latter, but the problem was I couldn't afford a house there (I'd had a flat before, and even they had rocketed in price), so went a few miles further out, and from the day I got the keys I hated everything about it, not least because all that I now knew and needed was the other side of the city. Within weeks we decided to move - 12 months later we'd sold and moved to the better part of the area I grew up in. Only due to the costs involved we settled on a maisonette, which has not gone up in price like the houses have.

It's been well over 20 years since I first moved back to this area - I still can't believe I ever did, and I am by no means in love with it (plus I still have all the horrible memories of growing up here) but it's where I feel safe, and above all, I know the area well. The older I get, the more I fear having to move to a place I don't know.

Regrets? Plenty. My only advice to you OP would be to make sure you have your reason "why?" and that you crunch the numbers properly.