Moved out of a lovely community in N London about 6 months before the pandemic, we needed to stay within reach of London for commute. Whilst we feel super lucky to have had nature on the doorstep with lockdowns it has been so hard to make new friends in our town / village. People are friendly enough but despite making lots of effort its v cliquey and no-one really seems to invite you into their existing circles. I get this to an extent - life is busy for everyone, but it can feel v lonely.
I wonder if anyone else has felt this? Did you stick at it and make it work over time? Or cut your losses? I'm terrified of making the wrong move again for the disruption to the kids. Also I wonder with both in primary now whether we've missed the chance to build new networks in another city or town where we can still get a house but maybe have a more diverse set of people? Or whether the options are to stay or go back to London where we'd have to live somewhere v v small? Or did we just get unlucky with a particularly insular place...
Help!