Moving away from home town to new area - SCARED!

[minko]

I haven't always lived in my home town - lived in London and Oz for years too, but we returned when we had kids to be near grandparents.

Now as schooling is dire around here we are moving. Only an hour away but I am really nervous. Everything here is so familiar and we know no-one in our new town. My kids are 3 and 6.

Any tips for making the move easier/ me calmer...

We did this two years ago and haven't looked back. It was slightly easier for me because I had a new baby, so I managed to get into refresher NCT classes and bumps and babes coffee groups, but I am sure that you will meet people at the school gates and nursery?

Try the library - look at what activities/groups etc are happening. Our library does lots of craft days during the school holidays and that's been good for meeting people. I guess your little one may be too big for toddler groups now, but perhaps there is a music/gym/craft sort of class appropriate for his/her age group that you could do?

Essentially, I had to overcome my natural shyness and just try and get stuck in - asking other nursery mothers over for coffee, chatting to people in the park and just essentially being open and friendly, and making a bit of an effort. It's really paid off and two years later we've made lots of friends and have settled happily, and I'm sure you will too. One thing that I have been really lucky with is good neighbours - almost all of the children on our road go to the same school, so I regularly bump into the other mothers - and we now meet up for a drink in someone's house every couple of months or so.....

Good luck!

Thanks for that. 'Panicmode' is exactly how I feel right now. Haven't slept properly all week and an wrecked now. Surely it shouldn't be this difficult!?

We visited the new local schools yesterday and they all seem fine and an improvement on what's on offer here.

I'm just so nervous though. The village is quite rural and a bit bland (in that it's quite a modern development) compared to what we're used to. Though there is a small leisure centre and quite a few good community clubs and things going on. The nearest town would be Reading which I know nothing about too.

It's all just so unknown. It makes sense to move there - good schools, bigger house, nice countryside - I'm just really nervous...