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Where there any challenges for your kids or any advice you can give to other families trying this? My initial feeling is that uprooting kids is not a good thing

Where there any challenges for your kids or any advice you can give to other families trying this? My initial feeling is that uprooting kids is not a good thing, but it clearly works for your family.

jacquesm 13y ago
Buy in is key, if you don't all agree on where to go in principle and you can't feel all of you that the new place is one where you could be happy then simply don't do it. The world is large enough and there are plenty of options. Our origins were a factor in the early moves (Poland, Netherlands), the way the business developed in the later ones (Canada). The final move back to NL was because we liked the school system and some other infrastructure here better than the one where we were at the time. But we'd have moved somewhere regardless of origins, business, schools or infrastructure and even today I'm quite sure this isn't the end of the story just yet.
david927 13y ago
It really depends on how old your children are. We knew that our third move, to a third country/language, when my daughter was about to turn five, would be our last for a while. Chomsky's "critical age" says that up until six kids can take the culture and language as their own. It falls off pretty rapidly after that. It's sometimes hard for me and my wife (we actually have a three-year itch :-) but we're really lucky to have found a good location and overall we're all really happy here (southern France).
benmccann 13y ago
I grew up in a military family which meant moving every few years. I'm pretty happy to have had that experience. I see my friends now sometimes pass up what would be great opportunities because they're too uncomfortable with the idea of making a big change. Moving certainly can be difficult, but it also makes you more adaptable and becomes easier subsequent times you do it. I was lucky in that our moves mostly lined up well with switching schools anyway (e.g. going from elementary to middle school), so that made it easier. Plus, as a nerdy kid in school, it had the positive side effect of getting to start over. And my brother who is very sociable became even more so as he had more and more practice making new friends. I think it's probably one of the reasons I'm a startup founder today. Taking a risk of leaving a high paying job to start a company didn't seem quite as scary when I'd made big jumps to new things in the past and had them turn out just fine. I'm sure moving would be tough for your kids at first, but it's also a great opportunity to teach them how to adapt to change.

Where there any challenges for your kids or any advice you can give to other families trying this? My initial feeling is that uprooting kids is not a good thing, but it clearly works for your family.

jacquesm 13y ago

Buy in is key, if you don't all agree on where to go in principle and you can't feel all of you that the new place is one where you could be happy then simply don't do it. The world is large enough and there are plenty of options. Our origins were a factor in the early moves (Poland, Netherlands), the way the business developed in the later ones (Canada). The final move back to NL was because we liked the school system and some other infrastructure here better than the one where we were at the time. But we'd have moved somewhere regardless of origins, business, schools or infrastructure and even today I'm quite sure this isn't the end of the story just yet.

david927 13y ago

It really depends on how old your children are. We knew that our third move, to a third country/language, when my daughter was about to turn five, would be our last for a while. Chomsky's "critical age" says that up until six kids can take the culture and language as their own. It falls off pretty rapidly after that. It's sometimes hard for me and my wife (we actually have a three-year itch :-) but we're really lucky to have found a good location and overall we're all really happy here (southern France).

benmccann 13y ago

I grew up in a military family which meant moving every few years. I'm pretty happy to have had that experience. I see my friends now sometimes pass up what would be great opportunities because they're too uncomfortable with the idea of making a big change. Moving certainly can be difficult, but it also makes you more adaptable and becomes easier subsequent times you do it. I was lucky in that our moves mostly lined up well with switching schools anyway (e.g. going from elementary to middle school), so that made it easier. Plus, as a nerdy kid in school, it had the positive side effect of getting to start over. And my brother who is very sociable became even more so as he had more and more practice making new friends. I think it's probably one of the reasons I'm a startup founder today. Taking a risk of leaving a high paying job to start a company didn't seem quite as scary when I'd made big jumps to new things in the past and had them turn out just fine. I'm sure moving would be tough for your kids at first, but it's also a great opportunity to teach them how to adapt to change.