To just say F it and move to Cornwall and homeschool my Dc

[Typingonkeyboard]

Or find a lovely little village school and spend our days living a slow, traditional life

It’s my dream

Has anyone got this, am I being realistic?

I don’t want to live in Birmingham or the Midlands 😔

This is true sort of but does anyone really want chain shops and restaurants that much? Have none of you heard of online shopping? Cornwall does have the internet and delivery vans now. I didn't really think people went shopping in person all that much any more, I get everything on Vinted now.

But is your life doable? Does the environment & lifestyle make up for it?

I regret moving back for "better" childhoods. The children want to be closer to good museums. And events.

Wanted to go in the sea at the weekend but there was sewage and tampons floating about. We ended up just going home.

Sad times tbh!

If you’ve spent any time in Cornwall you’ll know it practically has its own climate.

As a comparison, today my iPhone says that London is going to be dry for the next week and top temp of 23 on Friday. Cornwall prediction is 5 days of rain and top temp 18 degrees.

When your mates are posting pics of sunbathing in their gardens and you’re in the pissing rain, again, you notice the difference 🤷‍♀️

Both went away to university and stayed working in their university towns - so 200-300 miles. In all honesty I wouldn't do it again - I would have moved within Yorkshire. For other family reasons we have to stay - which is fine (just fine) - I miss home, never really felt settled.

You have Truro for shops tho? and Exeter a bit further out?

You are right. But I have to admit my signal is so bad around Newquay and Truro - my iPhones battery says the most drain on it is "poor mobile coverage"

People see the cost of houses in Cornwall and forget that the county was in receipt of EU Objective One funding, making it one of the most deprived areas in the whole of the EU. As a whole it is very poor and with little economic resilience.

An economy based on tourism leaves it with seasonal, low paid jobs and poor prospects for young people. There’s one hospital with an A&E. But due to the price of houses you’ll struggle to support a family on one income to free you up to homeschool.

Unless you plan to use the beach for all your leisure, you should probably look for another area to help your children to thrive.

Truro shops? Pound shops, over priced charity shops, betting shops and a Primark?

How exciting!

🤣

Overwhelming in Perranporth, how? Genuinely interested from people who live there

Teen life like in the 90’s/2000’s sounds great to me! Drugs so much…but i’m from the North originally and drugs were everywhere

Can you afford to live in Cornwall? Do your jobs exist down here or can you work remotely? What are your housing requirements and budget? 3 bed terraced houses in the most affordable areas of Newquay start at about £230k, here's a pretty nice looking example in St Columb Minor: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/173967950#/?channel=RES_BUY

Does it have to be Cornwall? There are lots of places in the UK with lots of outside space and will be better salaries to house prices ration than Cornwall.

A few summers ago Perranporth needed police to control overcrowding. There were approx 8000 people on the beach!

If you already have family in Cornwall OP then surely you already know what it's like?

Yes exactly, i’m not hugely fussed about clothes shops and there’s plenty of cafes and beach restaurants from what Ive seen

Overrun in the summer, closed in winter.

Tampons in the sea in Cornwall?!

Don't do it. Overcrowded in summer. Dead in winter and the deprivation becomes more visible. Very little all year round work. Speaking as someone who used to live there and moved away!

Falmouth has a bit more going for it and a bit more all year round stuff going on, but year round work is still a big issue. Truro is actually OK, most parts anyway. But still not all that much going on.

I would not move back to Cornwall unless retired, even though I absolutely love it and my family also still live there.

It's Cornwall, not Timbuktu so obviously a lot of things wouldn't be that different. But you sound a bit naive about the reality of moving to some of the countries most deprived and isolated areas. It's a lovely place to visit as a tourist, but living there means housing is a nightmare because almost everything is a second home or Airbnb, lots of the economy is summer time only, there is a lot of poverty and it can be very isolating if you're not a local. Public transport is almost non existent so you might find your children are far more isolated growing up than they would be in a more central town as they can walk to friends and get the bus to town. I lived on the border growing up and was always very glad not to be one of my friends driving and hour to school each way and never being able to do anything at the weekends because there was one bus a day and it didn't work. Unemployment is also very high and salaries are low.

@Typingonkeyboard

Most of the kids take drugs because there is nothing to do, they don't have much money and likely don't have a job and can't see a way of that changing. Lots of poverty in Cornwall - drugs, alcohol, poor mental health.

And the OP's aptitude for homeschooling. That certainly is not a good fit for everyone, and lots of people don't know that until they try it. Somebody I know thought it would solve all her problems, found she was not at all suited to it, sank into a deep depression, and discovered the whole process had seriously messed her kids up too, to the point where they were too anxious to go back to conventional schooling.

The tricky thing with fewer children per class is. . ..
If your child doesn't like the teacher/ teacher doesn't like the child you are stuck with each other for more than the usual 1 year stint ( small schools often group the infants in one single class or Years 1 and 2 together. Years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 also often grouped together. So 2 years with the same teacher .
Fewer opportunities for friendships. Potentially no one suitable that they gel with

Yes, very common! Lots of poo & tampons, lots of sickness from sea swimming.

I think if you said AIBU to move nearer to family, I think most people would think that reasonable. Moving to get more support, do more family things, to spend time with extended family is a good idea. I don't think you will necessarily get small class sizes though, my children were in Devon and they have the same pressure as everywhere on school places in good schools!

I think you need to work out what is doable and achievable of your dream, and what is basically a fantasy.

I can't think of anything less fantastic than home-schooling my children though, so we obviously have different fantasies, glad to send them to school!