British Expats in Spain - do you want to go home? did you go home?

[mamiguay]

Hi, I posted this yesterday looking for the spanish pov i.e. how the spanish mums are getting on in the uk, do they miss spain etc etc. Then I thought I should get the other side of it..

Dh and I live in Mallorca. We often talk about going back to the UK. Everyone back home tries to put us off telling us how poor the quality of life is, how expensive everything is etc etc. I'm really worried we'd be making a mistake. We both do okay over here, we don't own our own home and may never be able to. Neither of us have high flying careers and financially we manage. Currently dh works part time and so do I, 6 months of the year. This is great at the moment as we have a 15mo ds and appreciate the extra time with him.

But I miss a lot of things from home, my friends, my sisters. And dh is the biggest anglophile I've ever met. I want my ds to experience growing up in the UK, at least for part of his life. And I want to be able to change my job, try new things etc etc. Job opportunities here are so limited.

Have any of you gone back? How have you found it? Or if you haven't, do you want to? What stops you?

Hi Mamiguay.

So far, I've never thought of going back. BUT, I came to Spain to live when I was 23, and met DH a year later. I moved to his home town (Vigo), and have been welcomed into his family and have made a small but nice group of friends. I have a good job on a permanent contract ( you know how hard it can be to get one of these . So, I think of this as home. I don't have DC yet, but I do think this is a good place to raise children.

Things that stop me moving back:I like living here (the city and the lifestyle); I wouldn't know what to do in England (I teach EFL here); I wouldn't know where to live in England; I can keep in touch with family and friends in England easily by email/skype and frequent trips back, so don't miss them too much; DH's job is here and unmoveable (family firm).

I read through your Spanish post first, and thought your situation is difficult. It's always a case of what if, isn't it?

You say you and DH talk about going back to UK, does that mean that DH has lived there before as well? I think there is a big difference between living and visiting, and although you say DH is a big anglophile, does he know what it's like to live in UK?

As for jobs, I do think that it's easier to find a job and change jobs in UK than in Spain. However, if it did turn out to be a mistake and you wanted to go back to Mallorca, would you be able to go back into your old jobs, or get new jobs easily?

If you stay where you are, is there a possibility of branching out? Teaching? Translating? Tour guiding? Or something else?

Or could you move to a different part of Spain, which is less dependent on tourism so more of a year round place?

At the end of the day, no one can make the decision for you.