Considering moving back to Glasgow - bit of a rambling post!

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Hi I am looking for advice. I moved to England with my husband 4 years ago. We have 3 kids and stay in the South East. Oldest 2 kids go to an amazing school, I work from home and husband works locally with only a small commute. For some reason I have started to feel quite homesick and am considering us all returning to Glasgow. I've not really discussed this with my husband yet as I want to get it straight in my own head first. He loves living in England and has no desire to return to Glasgow he prefers his job role in England (we moved for his job initially was only supposed to be for 1 year but we've ended up staying for 4 years).

There are many benefits of living here; the weather is extremely good we all cycle lots and we all participate in outdoor activities & sports, the kids aged 8 and 5 are in an outstanding school which they love, where we live is very safe & has lots of cafes shops etc all within walking distance. My husband loves his job and has good career progression here.

However there are some drawbacks we rent as the house market is pretty crazy it's at least 600-700k for a 3 bed semi which is out of our price range. We have no family support here and while I have made some friends there are very few people I could call on if eg I was ill or one of the kids were ill - I'd only really contact them in an emergency. In Scotland I worked part time as a teacher. I now work from home because nursery or childminder fees would be £85 around per day for my 1 year old and £30 each for my other children for before and after school care so it makes more sense to work from home.

In Glasgow I had a good support network of very close friends and family and I enjoyed my job. Here pretty much everything we need is within walking distance which is great, sometimes I feel like going further afield but the traffic here is a constant nightmare even going 6 miles can take ages so it never seems worth it with 3 kids in tow. Sometimes I long to be able to drive from one side of the city to the other or catch the underground or park in spaces which are wide enough to open the doors on one side or even better both sides!! It's tricky as my husband and I only have each other to rely on living here so everything is down to us 24/7 even going on a night out costs around £50 for a babysitter before we even go out so we don't do that very often.

I'm not sure if I'm being completely selfish for even considering uprooting my 3 kids merely on the basis of me being a bit lonely and wanting to be able to park more easily (obviously I'm just kidding on that front!).

I think I need solid arguments for returning to Glasgow in terms of good schools, nice place to live, good transport links, good local amenities closer to grandparents and life long friends. Anyone returned from London to back Glasgow? I'm really worried about uprooting us all back to Glasgow only to regret the move.

Thanks for any advice sorry for the ramble it's taken quite a bit of courage to actually write this!

Come back!

Oops - posted too soon. Hang on...

The bad points first: it's rained every fecking day since September 2013. Apart from fair Monday. It was lovely.

You'll get plenty of house for your money, you have hills and lochs a short drive/cycle away, and culture in the city centre. Public transport has got better and if you stayed in, for example, lenzie you'd be in in under 10 mins by train. Come up for a holiday and check it out seriously.

How easy would it be for your husband to find a job here? Would it pay less?

Thanks so Agent provocateur I really appreciate your reply :) we're coming back for a holiday at the end of August so I think I will schedule some house viewings for the hubby "just to see" ;)
That's good about the public transport - seriously it can't be any worse than the local trains here I only drive or walk here as trains are so unreliable! I agree about the more house for your money we rent a 3 bed semi for £2000 per month because it's in a good school catchment area & our rent is actually low for the area?!

The rain though how to I get used to that again - 😂 it on the whole rains about once per month not sure how we'll adapt back to that - just thinking technically we have an English baby who's barely seen the rain!! Without the rain though there'd be no beautiful lochs. I miss being able to get around quickly to beaches, lochs & great shopping - seriously the shopping is pants here unless you go into London or drive to blue water which is never appealing. I never thought I'd miss being able to nip into ikea.

Where's good for schools in & around Glasgow? I'll have a look at Lenzie on rightmove just now. Bit concerned as to how kids will adjust as here to the kids in their class sound very Scottish which is sometimes pointed out but generally it's ok but in Scotland I'm sure they'll sound very English. I shouldn't imagine that would be a problem but I'm aware it might be.

I know East Renfrewshire has good schools but I'd like to be a bit closer to town / restaurants / parks / museums etc preferably be able to walk to some of these as that's what hubby loves here walking distance of an amazing park, loads of restaurants, bars and independent shops.

Thanks again

Hi Timeandtune there's a chance if we pushed it my husband's company would offer him a job back in their glasgow office but not 100% sure. The pay in Scotland is considerably less unless he works as a contractor which is a possibility. My pay is about the same. Hubby thinks we'd be worse off in Glasgow as by time we factor in less salary, higher eg heating bills & increased travel costs. I'm not so sure & do find it galling paying £24,000 per year in rent when we could put that towards a mortgage bur I appreciate we probably couldn't afford to pay that much for rent / mortgage in Glasgow if our joint income was less 😕

In your shoes I would consider a flat in the West End but near to park/ leisure centre etc. Houses tend to be more in the suburbs.

Back again. The drop in salary would be a worry but your heating bills won't be astronomical. In the west of Scotland it is wet but not very cold. Your commuting costs should also be reasonable and it sounds like you will have access to childcare.
I think you need to do the pros and cons on a sheet of paper (old school me) and see where that gets you.

Thanks timeandtune I hadn't really consider led the West End but we've lived in a standstone conversion before so I wouldn't mind a flat / duplex. I think I'll schedule in a visit to the pubs in Ashton lane & tie in some house site seeing at the same time. The good thing is I'd be happy to rent for a bit to try our a new area. I like bits of paper & lists too I like to be able to visually see it. I'm old school too 😀 hubby is more of a spreadsheet man 😂. Thanks again for the advice everyone. I'm currently showing him places to rent & buy to test the water 😬😊 x

Where are your family???

If you're looking at Lenzie- East Renfrewshire is closer to Glasgow and we'll served by train. Commute is about 20 mins.

ER also has a large proportion of ex-englanders. Thus the kids go unnoticed in local schools and the only local accent is a lack thereof.

It is v competitive to get a house in catchment (ditto West end)

If you look in Pollokshields/Shawlands/Newlands, you'll get good value for money at not West End prices, access to nice parks (Queens Park, Maxwell Park, Pollok Park) good public transport and lots of nice eateries in Shawlands and the Kilmarnock Road end of Nithsdale Road and good schools (Langside, Shawlands and Glendale Primaries the last one not technically feeding to, but placing requests work , Shawlands Academy the most international school in the UK )

Plus lots of sporting activities: rugby clubs, cycling club that meets in Bellahouston Park, football clubs, tennis clubs.....