London to New York!

[kleeen]

Hello. Just wanted to see if anyone out there has recently made the move from London to New York. I'm American, my husband is British. We moved to London from NYC about 2.5 years ago and have since had a lovely little boy, now 7 months old. I really have loved being in London, specifically Hackney, with the little one. It has been wonderful to meet so many other new mums, and be able to enjoy all of the parks and activities that London has to offer. I love that London is quite family-friendly. We often take DS to the local pub on a Saturday afternoon to meet up with friends and appreciate that he is welcome there.

However, we are considering moving back to New York in the fall when I have to go back to work. This is primarily an economical decision. (London = very stressed financially. New York = a little extra to save and maybe take a holiday).

I love New York. Lived in the East Village for 6 years before moving to London. But I'm trying to find out what its actually like to raise kids there. Specifically Brooklyn, as that's where we would move.

Can you take your well-behaved kids out to restaurants? Are other moms friendly and easy to approach? Do you feel like you have a community of parents around you or is it a bit more that you're on your own? What is the deal with preschools? How expensive are they? Any sort of London vs New York insight would be very appreciated!

I will be watching this thread we are off to New York this summer with two DD under 4 so nervous about this move

We moved from London to New York just over a year ago with our 2 kids who are now 2 and 3.5. It was a stressful and tough move, but we love it here so much that we have no regrets. I don't miss London at all (yet anyways!)

It sounds like you probably know more about NYC than I do, but, in my opinion it is a much more child-friendly place than London. Many of the subway stations have elevators, and there are just so many museums and activities geared towards children and families. And the number of playgrounds around is really incredible. And the weather is great (or at least has been this past year), we get out and about pretty much every day!

To answer your questions, we take our not-so-well-behaved kids out to restaurants all the time. Brooklyn is particularly kid-friendly in this way, but most of the restaurants I've been to in Manhattan have been as well. I haven't had much luck yet making friends, but I didn't do so well in this regard in London either once I stopped working so its probably just my lack of effort :) I'm hoping to go back to work soon so things will improve on that front. My eldest is in a daycare which is about half the price of what we were paying in London. Public pre-K in Brooklyn is very very hard to get into - there are just not enough spots for everyone applying, so he will be going to a co-op pre-K which is about the same price as what we were paying for nursery in London. A lot of the ones in Brooklyn I've seen you need to start looking quite early, and apply in the winter prior to when you want your child to start. Let me know if you have any other questions.