We're really really stuck on this question and would love to hear from other people who've been through it either way. Also, maybe there are people who know how to approach this decision making process?
Ok, we are quite happy in our patch of London, but:
- we have a smallish, quite nice house which we have outgrown with 3 kids and we would like somewhere bigger. We can't afford bigger in our immediate area and aren't wild about the areas just beyond which we can afford. We can get more for our money in some areas out of London.
- Our primary school is good, our secondary school choices are poor in that we aren't really guaranteed a place anywhere and our choices range from bad/improving, ok-ish, good but may not get in, v good but def won't get in unless we move 300m away to an area we're not wild about.
- through the kids we have made some local friends who we like and could see more of if we made the effort,
- have a few old friends who we hardly ever see because they're in other side of London.
- Husband's job is very much London, he hates thought of commuting 5 days week, but we figure he could do 2 days from home whilst looking for something else.
- I've never seen myself living all my life in London, I'm not from London and sort of ended up here, in the way that people do.
- Will miss lots of the good things about London
- We can't see ourselves in a village / rural (even though that seems idyllic at times) so we're thinking of a few towns where a couple of London exiles might be happy and have researched the schools thing, which is still difficult but oddly offers better choices, get nice houses but not with huge gardens.
- We have a couple of years before we need to think about secondary schools, but the dilemma is this. It almost feels silly to be thinking about moving out of an area that we do like now when we don't need to. It's not as if we're unhappy here but I wonder if it's better to make move when kids are younger as you get to meet other parents when kids are young and I've heard that doesn't really happen so much when they're older.
- What should we do? How do we go about making this decision? I keep looking at nice houses and almost feel like putting offers in, but then think we're not ready. How do you know when you're ready?
- Anyone else been here?
-Sorry this is so long, but if I make another pros and cons list I'll go mad!