Hellobee Boards Topic: s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?

Hellobee Boards Topic: s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:15:08 +0000 littlebug on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-238066 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:35:53 +0000 littlebug 238066@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We both grew up in the same small town in Central PA. We now live in a suburb outside of Philly. It is 1.5 hours from our families. I am content where we are, but Hubs wants to move back to where we grew up. He thinks we need to live super close to family so they can help with the kids, but my parents had NO ONE when I was born, and they survived. Plus, they're only 1.5 hours away - it's not like they're 4 hours - it's an easy day trip. Eventually, we may move back there, but I am not ready yet. I wouldn't call it a source of contention for us, but it's definitely a recurring discussion. chopsuey on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-238054 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:28:49 +0000 chopsuey 238054@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We're still not sure where we want to settle down.. Our current place isn't forever. .. Alivoo01 on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-238051 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:26:58 +0000 Alivoo01 238051@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I moved to North Texas for my job and met my hubby here during a summer internship. We bought a starter home here, and it's a nice place to raise a family. Opportunities are vast, but family is far away. We wouldn't mind moving, but for now, we're okay with staying put. Mrs. Pen on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-238005 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:10:52 +0000 Mrs. Pen 238005@https://boards.hellobee.com/ My DH is from NY and I'm from MN. I met him while living in NY, but we couldn't afford living there (I was still in school and he was finishing his masters). So MN was the obvious choice for us. It's where we are now. But I don't know that we'll stay here. We're considering moving to somewhere cheaper... and it would be with my brother and SIL. But we're not sure. Neither of us are truly happy here, we're here only because my family is. heffalump on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-238000 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:07:46 +0000 heffalump 238000@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We had it easy. We both grew up in the same area and our parents still live here. Charm54 on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237996 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:06:09 +0000 Charm54 237996@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We are now living in a small Canadian city (most people would laugh that at 10,000 ppl we are considered a city, but it's true!). I grew up here and love it. My family is all here and ideally we would love to stay. We both have good jobs and the cost of living is very low. The beach is nearby which is another big draw for me. DH's family is only a few hours away. I really want my children to be close to both sets of grandparents. However, DH may have to be transferred in March for work. This is stressing me out - we will know in September. Knowing that we will be raising children shortly, we will be looking for a city or town that is in Canada, small, outdoorsy, and family oriented. Weagle on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237987 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:00:43 +0000 Weagle 237987@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH moved here for his job and planned on moving back to AL (where we're both from) after a year. In that year he fell in love with his job, and we both fell in love with the area. We may move back to AL but it won't be anytime soon and would mean a significant career change for DH. And there's only one city in AL that would make sense for us to move to. ladyfingers on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237921 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:40:10 +0000 ladyfingers 237921@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We both lived in the area, we moved to a central city between where our two employers were. We like the area because there are a ton of parks, rec centers, etc. and a lot of culture and walkable areas with a nice downtown, museums, etc. The schools aren't awesome but that's pretty much the case anywhere you go in this area unless you go to a less populated part, which we didn't want to go because it was very far from work and not as "interesting" of an area. Mrs.B on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237798 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:05:02 +0000 Mrs.B 237798@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I grew up in IA and DH grew up in Long Island NY. DH moved to IL for work and his parents soon followed him. They are older his dad is 77 and his mother is 67. They need DH's help alot so he cannot move away from them at this point. DH was already established with a home fit for raising kids so I moved into his home and that is where we still live. We really want to move to another state because IL is seriously lacking in fun activites to do with the kids but can't do to my IL's needing us. Once my FIL passes away we plan to move to FL and bring my MIL with us. We have a vacation house in FL and we love being there and it is a great place to raise our beach loving children. mrsjyw on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237790 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:58:35 +0000 mrsjyw 237790@https://boards.hellobee.com/ we started house hunting the summer before we got engaged. we decided to stay in our home state because of our jobs and our families being close by. (my parents were moving back in a year)... we chose our house in a town 20 min away from our hometown so that we could be near our parents without having them over every single day. it worked out for us and im glad we stayed. we're both very fortunate compared to many others in our state (michigan). DillonLion on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237780 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:56:03 +0000 DillonLion 237780@https://boards.hellobee.com/ DH grew up in a small town in West Texas and while he loved his upbringing, he wanted to settle down in a bigger city with more resources (educational, cultural, etc.) The Dallas/Ft. Worth area was a good fit for him because it was a big city, but not so big that he'd get lost in the shuffle or deal with extremely high cost of living. I happened to grow up in that area and all of my close family is nearby, so it was fine for me to stay here. eeh on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237768 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:49:37 +0000 eeh 237768@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Moving from our home state was never, ever a consideration for us. Neither of us would ever consider it unless we had no other options. We had to decided where within our state to live. The two biggest things for us to consider were proximity to my husband's work and proximity to our parents. There were about 15 different small towns we considered but ultimately went with the one that was halfway between our parents (10 minutes to each) and about a 35 minute drive straight down the highway for my husband's work. regberadaisy on "s/o: How did you decide where to settle down and raise a family?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/so-how-did-you-decide-where-to-settle-down-and-raise-a-family#post-237661 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:14:05 +0000 regberadaisy 237661@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I grew up in NYC and all of my family is there. My husband grew up in Upstate NY and most of his family is here. While dating and getting married we knew we would eventually have to make a decision on where to settle down and raise our family. We belabored over it for a year plus. We weighed many pros and cons of NYC vs this "small" city we live now. Things like cost of living, environment in which we raise how our children, how we want to raise our children, etc. We were really quite split because either decision would leave one of us deserting our family. Ultimately, in a way, the decision was made for us. My husband has 2 older brothers. The eldest one is in the Air Force stationed in GA and although he's out next year god knows what his plans are. The middle brother passed away suddenly almost two years ago right before Christmas. Just prior to this my ILs who had moved down to GA to be near the grandkids made the decision to move back to Upstate within the next two years. With my BIL's passing we decided that we needed to stay here so that we can "take care" of my ILs in the future. We didn't want to leave them in their retirement with no immediate family, kids or grandkids nearby. That's not the main reason of why we ultimately chose to stay in Upstate NY but it was the push that caused us to make a final decision. It's a hard decision still to live with day to day. I'm not near my mom and with the recent switch in the culture of daugher's obligation to take care of moms it's even harder. But I feel comfort in knowing she at least has my 2 older brothers to take care of her. It hurts not seeing my niece and nephews day to day and to miss so much of their life. When my brother fell ill I felt guilty for not being closer. I feel guilty my mom will miss out on so much of our kid's lives. But, we're adults, we make a decision and we live with it. Ultimately, this is a great place to raise a family. And I know our kids will always be exposed to the big city life because we'll visit often. How did you make your decision on where to raise a family?