Move to US is an option- am I mad?

[Tryingtohelp12]

We’ve had the opportunity to move to the US with my dh job. Are we mad to consider it?
I feel like we are stuck in a bit of a rut and in the future we will regret not taking more risks. we have 2 (about to be 3) children who would be aged 5,2 and newborn.
pros
great for long term career for dh
experience
change
increase standard of living in terms of salary

cons
young children being away from extended family
limit on my ‘career’ as I couldn’t work as we’d have no family support - I’m honestly not super passionate about work
reliant on husband/husbands job

Are we mad for considering it?

Some posters have very fertile imaginations, I'll give them that😂

Hyperbole, sweeping generalizations....reminds me of a creative writing assignment for remedial learners.

Sometimes you just have to laugh🙄

Agree wrt the fertile imaginations.

I would be most interested to know where, for example, TempleHill gleaned her information on the US and its people.

I've certainly met people like that. Or encountered them in news story comment sections! But you can't possibly argue that that's all of America. Or one minute, they're backwards gun toting Fox News watchers, the next they're captive to the woke mind...

imagine if Americans generalised about the UK from readers of the Daily Mail and the Sun. The recent Australia thread certainly didn't show the best of British prejudices.

I see the "They all just love FOX News" comments frequently on Mumsnet. To put that in perspective -

The highest rated program on FOX News is a current events type show called "The Five". It generally pulls in about 3.5 million viewers, or roughly 1% of Americans. Now I'm no genius (I'm American after all😂), but that's hardly a rousing majority.

I don't know what's behind all the vitriol, but it sure is boring.😴

I don't know what's behind all the vitriol

I know. I've been on MN a long time. There are people on MN who know that there are quite a few of us Americans on here, and they like to poke us. I think some would like to chase us off.

But it is amusing to call us anti-intellectual and lovers of Fox News when you can't go five minutes on MN without encountering a link to some of the less savory UK tabloids.

Also for what it's worth, I live in a state in the Deep South, with lax gun laws, and I'm pretty old. Other than a hunting rifle or two, I have never seen anyone with a gun other than law enforcement officers.

Truth may be bitter but unfortunately (i found) quite a lot of Americans ‘slow’, not able to think out of the box and simply unaware of many things.

It really is a struggle many times to talk to people in pharmacies, doctor receptionists, School administrators, DMV offices etc etc Try calling ANY customer services number for “something basic” and see how it goes. On top of it many are down right lazy and just want to pass the buck to the next person. I can give many examples but don’t ve time to write up.

Truth may be bitter

Well something is certainly bitter....

@BlauVogel - you have judged people who have a rather basic level of education based on how they interacted with you. That doesn't mean the majority of Americans are anything like you describe.

I was once complimented on my improved English by the receptionist at my OB/Gyn's office. It was nice of her to say what she did, even though the comment itself was wildly off the mark. She also got my (Irish) name very, very wrong, comically so.

I had the opportunity to watch this young woman doing her job once a month over the course of four pregnancies. She was courteous over the phone and extremely efficient with the filing system. I saw her speak over the phone and in the office to patients in English, Spanish, and basic Polish, and she was able to deal with patients who had broader American accents too. In short, had I judged her competence or intelligence by her initial assumption that English wasn't my first language, I would have been mistaken.

Why you do you think that:

• Your opinion and observation are the only valid ones and other are being ‘incorrectly’ judgmental?
• In my examples above, I was comparing the level of thinking ability and IQ on like for like basis. Hence i think that compared to UK/Europe many normal American lacks basic common sense and ability to think out of the box. It often feels like you are talking to Chatbots.

This just doesn't match my experience at all. I think you're overestimating the cleverness of Europeans. I've met about equal numbers of stupid people everywhere.

and dare I say it, if you think everyone you're speaking to is dumb, perhaps the problem is you.

I've lived in New England for 20 years and I think the above post is spot on. Plenty of smart Americans, plenty of dim Brits.

Hence i think that compared to UK/Europe many normal American lacks basic common sense and ability to think out of the box. It often feels like you are talking to Chatbots.

Say this about any other ethnic group/nationality in exactly the same way and you'd be banned on MN.

I no longer report the wildly xenophobic, anti-american posts which are all over the place - not just on posts about living in the US (Halloween and Santa Claus and the regional pronunciation "mom" seem to be triggers for some bizarre reason) because I've come to think of them as quite funny in their utter lack of insight. They certainly say more about the British than they do about americans.

Exactly. And I must spent almost 3 weeks in the UK and can’t say I noticed any difference between the intellect of the people I interact with in the US and the people in the UK. If I compare where I live in the US with where I am from in the UK I probably would say the exact opposite, that the people in the UK aren’t as smart so a lot probably also depends where you are

You are surely free to draw your own conclusions. Good that you found mental compatibility in the US.

The USA is a huge and diverse country.
The regional accents are fascinating.
In my many many visits there the vast majority of people I've interacted with are kind and polite. People still hold doors for you; address you as ma'am, miss, or sir; and practically all service sectors bend over backward to make the customer happy. It's rather condescending to perpetuate the "ignorant American" stereotype. Not everyone shares the same life experiences.

The USA is certainly not perfect. I'm concerned about gun violence and the state of their (extreme) politics, however, given the opportunity to work and live there for the betterment of my family, and the experience alone, I would do it.

Hmm. Well here another example of the high quality standards and attention to detail:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/25/max-disaster-casts-long-shadow-as-boeing-tries-to-rebuild-its-fortunes

And if you think you are somehow entitled to “report” people for sharing their opinions & observations. May be an internet forum isn’t the right place for you.

Isn't it just wild to see the hateful responses?
These folks love to state their special hatred for Americans.
They see a snippet of "news" and declare their profound knowledge of our culture.
Being from a beautiful and free state,this truly makes me wonder if they could handle not being oppressed.

I'll continue my incredible view during tornado season and enjoy living in a 'small town ".

Boeing, one US firm, stumbled and is struggling to rebuild, therefore it proves 330M Americans are less clever? This is an interesting reach.

by the way I have seen guns in public now and again; not so much where I live, but when I've been elsewhere. There seems to have been an uptick to go with all the laws about open carry in public. There are things I think the USA could do better, but it's not because they're stupid. Generally, I've found there are reasons things work as they do, even if they don't seem obvious (for example, in some ways the constitution acts as a straitjacket).

Let's be fair there's a vocal anti Australian contingent who think that Australia consists of nothing but spiders and snakes. Certainly not culture.

it seems Canada is too boring to get a look-in. Though again, no culture. Only europe has culture, according to some...

When I joined MN many years ago, I thought it was a group for us women who could bond over motherhood.
I'm appalled at the things I read.
Americans have different lives than Brits.Vice versa....
It's just the way it is.
Do we not all have the same goal?

I hope to visit both places eventually.
Both seem incredible dor different reasons.

for

I'm with you math anxiety. The dismissal of Americans by many British people is really uneducated somehow. Think through moving here but not because all Americans are dumb and watching Fox News, far from it. Some of the students I encounter have a college reading level at 11 years of age- public school. It's a varied population just like in the UK.

And remember...
At least in my life and surrounding area,in the University population,the standards are ridiculously high.
21,000 applied and only 5,000 were accepted.

Why you do you think that:

• Your opinion and observation are the only valid ones and other are being ‘incorrectly’ judgmental?
• In my examples above, I was comparing the level of thinking ability and IQ on like for like basis. Hence i think that compared to UK/Europe many normal American lacks basic common sense and ability to think out of the box. It often feels like you are talking to Chatbots.

Your sample size would have to be far larger for you to draw the conclusions you are hell bent on drawing, @BlauVogel

Have you personally spoken to about 5,000 Americans in entry level positions?

Have you been able to take time to observe even a few individuals performing their duties with other people in order to eliminate the possibility that the problem in all the interactions might be you?