Relocation south to north

[Glide82]

I’d love your help. I’d like to move from the Home Counties to the North of England with my family (husband and 2 kids).

I’m from the north so family and friends are there. My husband is often away with work. My job can be done anywhere. His job can be done remotely when he’s not away but he’d need to be away a little bit more if we lived in the north due to commute times.

It’s such a big decision. Kids in year 2 and 1 and very settled but the area we’d look to move has some lovely schools. I’ve been down south for many years and I do like it down here but it’s expensive in commuter belt and I feel we could have a better quality of life nearer my family and a lower mortgage but DH would have to commute back down 3x a month at least and it’s a long drive. I worry on impact on family of the change or if DH finds it too tiring (he’s happy to try it).

However if we don’t try it then I’ll always wonder what if and feel a bit sad about it. In some ways I feel there are equal opportunities up there for kids as they get older with great cities nearby. However the potential upheaval now is just a very stressful thought incase we do the wrong thing. Scared to move, scared not to!

Any advice welcome :)

We moved from the SE to the NW 9 years ago. We love it here, but we are fairly rural, so there's not much for the dc to do now they are teens. Dd is now at university and enjoying being in a city. We are 4 hours away from our nearest family - they are all still down south.

Thanks @AllProperTeaIsTheft glad you settled up there. Did your kids settle easily when you moved? My DH is concerned that our kids won’t fit in with their southern accents but I’m not sure primary aged kids really care so I think they’ll fit in fine. Did you have a lot of worries if it was the right thing when you were making the move?

My dc were 6 and 9 when we moved. They settled well. They did get some comments about their southern accents, but not nastily! Our parents weren't very keen on us moving to the other end of the country. That was the only sticking point really. Apart from that, we had no worries about doing it. We did it partly for house prices, but mostly because we fancied a change and fancied going more rural. It was a toss-up between here and Devon / Cornwall!

I did it the other way round north to midlands and I did take a lot of stick for my accent. This was a long time ago though so hoping kids are a bit kinder.
With the commute for dh is it possible to be near a mainline station so he doesn’t need to drive? I think this would make it more manageable so he can work on the train, relax a bit etc.

@Sundaefraise thanks! I’m hoping at age 6/7 kids wouldn’t been notice an accent and take the mickey too much - I don’t want to put them in that situation.
Yes we would be near a mainline station - ensuring we’d be well connected but he’d need the car at the other end unfortunately and the trains might not start early enough some days. It’s such a balancing act.

We moved south to north. The kids haven’t reported any teasing about their accents but it’s a fairly mixed place we’re in and they are not the only children without the local accent.

In general we are very happy to have made the move. We live on the outskirts of a fab city with great schools. The transport connections can be hairy at times but I don’t know how much that’s affected by the general chaos at the moment. We both travel for work and generally make it to where we need to be.

We also did the move.

Kids accents stood out, but don’t anymore - I’m a bit disappointed they’ve lost their accents, but so have I to some degree.

@Desolatewardrobe and @Totaly thanks for your feedback on your experiences. It feels so huge that it’s tempting to stay put even though I know long term that’s not what I want. I do want to make sure my family will be happy - so hard to know for sure until actually moved though!