How many times I asked myself the same question 15-20 years ago... I love my home/guest country, but I disliked what it was turning into... Being born in a country that isn't "yours", living more than half of your life there, and moving to another country where you are also a foreigner is something peculiar... Being a Hungarian, born in Serbia, having a war, bombing, and "being different nationality" in those times, it was hard to grasp in my childhood... Especially as the hate was built on differences, Serbs against Croats, Orthodox vs Catholics, rich vs poor...
Despite all that, I still love nature, my hometown, the Danube, my friends, my family... But, I decided to leave my (born) country and move to Spain 14 years ago... It wasn't as hard a decision as I thought it would be, as the circumstances in which we were living were making it easier... Our son was 4 years old, he went to a kindergarten and he had a hard time adapting there... He was mocked by other children and was crying every day in kindergarten. He hated it...
On the other side, I had my business developed for years, having my loyal clients, and all in all, I was doing okay... My wife, too... But... I realized that the direction where the county was going was wrong... I felt pressure from society to do things that I wouldn't like to do... It was pushing me to cheat, to bribe, to lie, just to survive... Seeing that, I didn't want my child to have the same future as I had in my childhood... So, we moved out...
We weren't too "picky" about where to go, as anywhere would be better than where we were... We tried Australia, New Zealand, Canada... In the end, we got a call from a friend from Spain to pay him a visit and see how it goes... just for a vacation... We went for 3 weeks, and after that vacation had a long discussion of the pros and cons... Some other stars got aligned, and we left...
The decision to move to Spain was probably one of the best that we took... It's not a "dreamland", but the quality of living, beautiful weather, and peace of mind is something that I appreciate a lot... Having a vision of how it was and how it is now, I can't complain...
Good luck with your decision-making... Don't overthink things... With a good attitude, certain things get sorted out by themselves...
And regarding this...
I personally would see myself living in a country like Norway , Denmark, Luxembourg or Switzerland. How about you?
I would never change the Spanish sun for those countries... 😂 Realizing how important the yellow thing in the sky is spoiled me... But, sunny days are much more motivating, inspiring, and "easier to live"... 😎
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You tried plenty of options before settling in. I think that the hardest part was seeing your child going through the difficulty of adapting to a place he did not like. Parents do everything for their child and I bet it wasn't easy to witness that.
New Zealand....that is a far away land to test out. It looks fabulous on the map but perhaps the reality of what is it like to live there is different than what we can watch on Youtube.
I agree with the lack of sun in nordic countries , it did not affect me that much but I have to be honest and say that coming back to my country where the lack of sun is not a reality made me appreciate it even more.
What do you like about Spain and how is education there better for your child?
The thing was that he couldn't adapt to the kindergarten in my hometown! When we came to Spain, and on the first day of kindergarten here, he came home happy despite not knowing the language! That was such a big relief for us... to see him happy!
Well, our son is now a grownup, and he is at the Music University (1st year)... His education could be better, but we are happy with his attitude... It was more about his effort to learn than to go to school... But music school is a bit different...
What do I like about Spain? Most of the things... The weather, I don't feel insecure on the streets, diversity, nobody looks at you weird if you are different (as a lot of tourists, I suppose), tolerance, people are most of the time pleasant, etc...
What do I dislike? bureaucracy... lol... But, I suppose that's everywhere the worst... 😂
Ah the weather factor! I can understand it as I do know how difficult it was to adapt to Denmark's climate. The sun can induce a positive mood just by being up in the sky throughout the day, it is something we can often take for granted.
Bureaucracy....I have no idea where on Earth we could go to escape that lol:))
Tolerance is huge. I would definely consider tourists as a factor of influence in that. If you go in a small village with few people you will be scrutinized, I guess this way of operating with novely is something inherent in every person regardless of nationality.
Children respond more to energy than to words so maybe the kindergarted needed to be filled with people who could "speak" better to children as in being more nice. I have seen my share of grumpy educators . I am glad to hear that now he is studying music and that you feel joy to know that you have overcome adversity in order to have a better life in Spain!
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