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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

Moving to Spain with young kids - am I being foolish/irresponsible?

2 replies

theyoniwayisnorthwards · 16/01/2018 11:47

MY DH and I are starting to think about moving somewhere warmer with our young kids. It was his idea but I'm starting to feel more and more enthusiastic and now he's suggesting we just take the leap and move there in time for the kids to start school next September, rent a house and if it doesn't work out we can move back.

Background, we run a small, stable business together providing professional services. We can work from anywhere, he needs to be in London a few times a month but can arrange his own schedule. We live in London with 2 DC aged 5 and 7 and rent the house we live in now but also own some property on the outskirts of London, which we rent out. The rent we make on the house we own covers both the mortgage and our rent where we live now. We are Irish but have both lived in London for a long time, we have no family here but we do have good friends and a support network.

Pros: We are already expats really and Spain is nearly as accessible as the UK for our family in Ireland. I used to speak conversational Spanish (am crap now but pretty confident I can get back to a decent level in a few months with effort). It's warm, my eldest is athematic and suffers in the cold months, we aren't reliant on finding jobs there, would keep property in London so not severing all ties, we can afford to pay for school there if we need to and we are both outgoing and make friends quite easily.

Cons: We moved to where we live now to get the kids into the great state school they are in and if we leave they'll lose their places. Worried about unsettling them generally and we are really quite happy where we are now, we have a nice life. DH might struggle with the language and we would probably be lonely at first.

Has anyone done this? Do I need to take a few steps back and rethink? The math seems to add up but then I think my excitement might be clouding my judgement.

OP posts:
astoundedgoat · 16/01/2018 11:58

We are in an almost identical situation - we’re even Irish too!

What’s holding us back is that our children will get a better education here in London than in our chosen hot country.

Here in London we have a fab primary school than the kids love and it’s a three minute walk away. In the chosen hot country the schools are frankly not great. If things don’t pan out for DH in the autumn we could conceivably go until secondary school, but thinking ahead to secondary and teenage years, I think here is better. It’s so expensive though!

Sorry for not being mor helpful. Do PM me if you’d like to chat more. I have many thoughts that are too identifying for here!

fussychica · 22/01/2018 17:16

We did this when our DS was 10 and it worked very well for us. Your children are at the ideal age to go and become bilingual quickly. However, the education system in Spain is very different from that in the UK and you really need to do your research. We took quite a risk as our DS was at a very good primary, though he wasn't particularly happy there. He did very well in the Spanish system but decided he wanted to return to the UK for university. He is now a language teacher in UK.

Happy to answer any questions, though obviously we made the move many years ago now.

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