Dallas Texas

[JLT24]

Has anyone moved from the UK to Dallas with a young child? We are exploring doing this for 2 years. Please share any info you have 🙏🏻

Lots of awful and negative comments on here! I’m originally from the UK and have lived in several (liberal) states and now the Dallas area for five years. Due to the influx of people moving from CA and NY there are more democrats here than ever before. You won’t be able to vote anyhow, and can choose to be affected by local politics- or not.
July and August are very hot, but you’ll have AC everywhere inside. Lots of great splash pads and water parks, plus indoor things like an aquarium and Peppa Pig World at Grapevine Mills Mall. There’s also a lot of lakes with beaches and boating etc.
The winters are really mild which is nice, I don’t miss digging my car out of snow.
What you will want to take into consideration is that you’ll need two cars ( unless you live close to your DH’s office and you are willing to drive him with the kids everyday). Car insurance is very expensive right now.
There’s lots to do for families, and people are extremely friendly.
You will want to figure out if you want to live on the Dallas or the Fort Worth side- I much prefer Fort Worth. Do you know where his office is going to be?

As a woman of reproductive age (hate that phrase) I would never move to the US. I'd be dead without the miscarriage care I got in the UK that they now don't deliver in the US.

Thanks so much 🙏🏻 unfortunately I don’t drive. I stay home a lot due to chronic illness which is something I’m very used to. His working hours would be 6am-2pm and his office is in Frisco. We’d like to live close to the office is possible so he can be home early! Ideal would be to find an apartment that has a kids park and pool so we can get out without venturing far.

Sorry for your loss. We are definitely not having any more babies!!!

Frisco is very nice. With those hours you can just about manage without you driving. Look for an apartment complex with a pool for sure which won’t be too difficult.

the anti American brigade has shown up on command!

comparing the US to Afghanistan is not only ignorant but insulting to afghani women. Also, as much as I oppose abortion bans, it’s not national, so treating the US as an undifferentiated mass is simply wrong.

My bff spent a year there, definitely not somewhere she would stay long term but she she had generally a positive experience.

I could never live long term in somewhere like Texas but for a fixed term opportunity for a lot of cash, and without school complications to worry about, I’d go

I'm sorry you suffered a miscarriage.

But there are many states in the US where nothing has changed since the overturning of Roe. The state I'm in is one. This means that all recognised medical care is available for women.

@JLT24
I asked my niece specifically for you.

She said:
Dallas is the worst big city in Texas

"unprecedented weather events" more and more often, and the state power grid is separate from the rest of the US and goes down all the time because it hasn't been maintained or updated.
Crime is high.
The public school system is bad. Housing was becoming unaffordable. State government policies were making it unsafe for any group of people that aren't affluent white men. The city is just endless sprawl of suburbs and highways.
I didn't want to put my ds in a school system that doesn't teach science, real history, or critical thinking and removes books from libraries for having gay characters. I was scared what it would mean for him growing up there if he is gay or neurodivergent and needs learning support.

The pros of Houston are good food, diversity, and great airport/international connectivity. Dallas has a big airport but not much diversity or good food.

myview:
ifyou are not planning to stay long term it might be doable. Personally, it wouldn't appeal to me.

Well everything pointed out to you, you're coming back with "that doesn't apply to us" so yeah, just go. You obviously want to even though many here wouldn't.

Although I don't know how you're going to manage all of those outgoings on £2100

Your rent alone will be almost that. It's expensive to eat too.

I’ve actually acknowledged that plenty of points raised apply to us and I will be looking into them further. We won’t be making a decision until they’ve been fully researched and were satisfied.

However naturally some points raised don’t apply to us especially as I didn’t give a lot of detail in my original post.

Where is the £2,100 from?

Ack for 2 years go for it OP. I love Texas, no it's not where I'd settle for life but hell 2 years is nothing, it'll be an adventure. Your kid is young enough, you have insurance, you'll cut your cloth. Lots of negative ninnies on this thread.

Very much seeing it as an adventure and an opportunity to have savings which we’ll never have otherwise. Of course my priority is safety so when it comes to things like crime, extreme adverse weather etc I need to explore this more.

A close relative lived in Texas, I visited some years ago. Weather was very hot and humid. People were generally lovely. Noticed quite racist where we were, at least against the Mexican Community, i have the colouring so experienced it till I spoke...
A lot of poverty and deprevation in some Communities and there were places I would definitely not have wanted to break down. The wildlife we saw was Rattlers, scorpion and daddy long legs the size of dinner plates so not ideal if you don't like snakes and spiders and the like! Plenty of dead armadillo by the side of Rd but never saw a live one sadly.
Massive long roads, no one seemed to walk anywhere.
We were in tornado alley and there were many. Flash flooding and the hailstones were massive, at the time had never seen anything like it!
It was interesting. I probably would go for a year or two but wouldn't want to live there.
Relative came back eventually.

I’d go for 2 years. I live in the U.S. and while Dallas isn’t my favorite (as others have said weather, too lenient gun laws, sprawl) Dallas is a big city with a lot to offer, good restaurants, shopping, things to do. The hardest part may be living with a 1 yo and no car, it is very much a city where ton drive everywhere. If his office is in Frisco then there are areas there and in Plano which is nearby where there are mixed use apartment developments with shops and restaurants in the same complex, the apartments will probably have pools gyms etc too. That will be far less isolating than a house or apartment in a more residential area. Mumsnet loves to ac morally superior about living in the U.S. based on ridiculous things like tipping waiters and large portions of food in restaurants but in general I find my standard of living far higher here than it would be in the UK and I have always lived in places with far better food and far healthier food options than the UK, Dallas would be like that, lots of supermarket options and every kind of food imaginable available. Provided you pick the right health plan out of the options available and stay with in network drs the costs are not that high and since you will be in a large city with several world class hospitals you will probably find the quality of healthcare and the ease of seeing a Dr far superior to the UK.

From everything you've shared OP, I don't think you need to worry about crime. Not being able to drive and being largely homebound removes a lot of risk. Extreme adverse weather - you are at risk of that in Dallas. That's a fact. You could get caught up in a tornado or a hurricane or flooding. I don't see that as a major reason to stay away, you just have to educate yourself on what to do if those things happen.

we have relatives who have moved around the US and went back to settle in Dallas. They live in Coppell and are very happy.

I would manage in the same way I will in the UK.

HOWEVER, this post is asking for advice on moving to a specific place from others who have done the same, I did not ask for advice on how to manage my health condition and parenting which I already have covered thank you.

Also don’t recall saying the things you state in that way, if I did it’s not currently relevant.

With respect my previous answer already answers this.