Moving for the right reasons?

[Spenno200]

We've finally made the decision to move house after thinking about it for ages and I've started to get the jitters that we're doing it for the right reasons.

We're a family of 4 (two kids aged 2 and 4) and have lived in our 1930s semi in a suburb of Bristol for about 8 years. It's a good house that we've improved over the years, in a decent area with a great park just round the corner. Our reasons for moving are:

• bigger house, bigger garden, less over looked, 4 bedrooms, utility room, garage
• move out of the city to where it's less noisy and congested.
• greater access to the countryside
• the idea of living in a market town
• better secondary schools (I think some primaries are fine here but would prefer to move before they reach secondary).

Ultimately we don't 'need' to move as we could live perfectly well here, which is what is making me think whether our reasons are valid enough to uproot the family? Are the jitters just normal?

They’re all valid reasons, I don’t understand the dilemma

I have moved many times in my life and always get thw jitters. It's like i fear the commitment all over again. I know i have to be committed to a house for life but when a new one comes along i question it all over again. Odd feeling. Hope the move goes well.

I love my house now. But have to move. And I posted on here a few days ago how worried I am that I won’t like the new house etc. Perfectly normal I think. And maybe even more so if ur like me would quite happily stay where I am.
When I moved house last time I hated the house , the road and the people and I couldn’t wait to move.
I think it is jitters that it will be worse where u end up and u could have just stayed and been happy where u were.
Better the devil you know as my mum always says

Sorry. Meant to add. The reason ur moving sound fine x

Secondly schools are mostly hideous in Bristol unless you go private, just move.

Ultimately we don't 'need' to move as we could live perfectly well here, which is what is making me think whether our reasons are valid enough to uproot the family? Are the jitters just normal?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
I found this quotation, attributed to Mark Twain. I must admit that I was disappointed by the 'live love laugh' quality of it but apparently the interweb is wrong and he never said it!
But you get the gist.

Also, it's better to move before you NEED to. If you wait until it is an urgent matter then you put yourself under unnecessary stress and time pressures; you lose the luxury of choice.

Your reasons are very understandable especially thinking about secondary school needs. However, I know some people find the adjustment to being out of town more challenging than they thought. Would you really spend more time in the countryside? Will the market town have all the other amenities you need? We had to think about similar things years ago. In the end decided that it was more important to be close to a GP surgery/supermarkets and some entertainment (cinema/leisure centres) because didn't want to drive too far to get to those more often than jaunts to the countryside.

The main thing you don't need to move at least not soon so you have the time to keep searching until you find exactly what you want. Much less pressure all round.

Entirely sensible reasons for a move. But you are never going to know either way if it’s the right move until you do it OP. We relocated this year, best decision for our family. The way we looked at it was, if we didn’t like it would could move again.

@Blahdyblahbla

Secondly schools are mostly hideous in Bristol unless you go private, just move.

What a ridiculous comment

I'm having very similar dilemmas and @senua's post just nailed it for me

We did that.. from Bristol
4 years later we are moving back...
Hopefully to 1930's semi 🙈

The grass isn't always greener

Where do you live op?
Where are you thinking of moving to?

@Sandrine1982

I'm having very similar dilemmas and *@senua*'s post just nailed it for me

@Sandrine1982 Only just spotted this. Glad to be of service. Hope it goes well for you.

Thanks everyone, some really helpful responses. They're the types of things I've been thinking anyway but seem to find I question myself from time to time and wanted a bit of a sanity check!

I think on this occasion I'd just been in the local park where there were lots of families having a great time and it just made me question whether it was silly to want to move.

Haven't decided on a new area yet and in some ways glad we don't 'need' to move. Options include Nailsworth, Frome, Chepstow, Tetbury, Raglan, Monmouth and Cheltenham (although latter feels bigger than we ideally want). Currently in a place called Staple Hill - as I said a perfectly good place in lots of ways but want to get out of the city.

Where do you live op?
Want to swap.. 😉
We moved 10 minutes from
Chepstow and it's awful
The bridge is shut all the bloody time
And the traffic is just awful
So we are moving back..

Bristol is just amazing! I guess it's a case of you don't know what you've got til it's gone..
Also, if you move out it could be hard to get back (it was really really hard for us)
But thankgod we managed it' I would have died of boredom and loneliness if we'd stayed..

Was it page park you went to!? I love it there
We considered Downend...Would that be good for you? Slightly bigger houses with nice gardens
We've ended up in north Bristol to be near to family!
It's so good to be back!

My reason for moving was I fancied a change. You don't have to have overly important reasons as to why. Move just because you can, why not?

@oohmama

Was it page park you went to!? I love it there We considered Downend...Would that be good for you? Slightly bigger houses with nice gardens We've ended up in north Bristol to be near to family! It's so good to be back!

Yes it was Page Park - live just round the corner from there and it's ace, probably one of the main things that was nagging on my mind about leaving the area. We're not in one of the huge houses so in theory could move there (money dependent!) but still deep down just want to get out of the city - we could stay but I think I'd have more regret if we stayed than if we tried something different. We're quite footloose as all our family lives miles away anyway.