![]() ![]() My earliest memories are full of grandparents, aunties and uncles popping into each other’s houses for chats over tea and cake while the cousins played together, and I wanted that for my children, too. Watching the kids open the door to loved ones felt special Living in the countryside or close to the sea had obvious appeal, but being landlocked was preferable if it meant being geographically closer to family and friends we had desperately missed during our time away. Deciding where to move was never particularly difficult, because we had always planned to return to my beloved hometown, Coventry. As for so many thirtysomethings, coronavirus was the catalyst for a reevaluation of how we wanted to live and raise our children. According to the estate agent Hamptons, 2022 saw more than 150,000 households leave London for the commuter belt and beyond in search of space, peace and quiet. The grating creaks of the lift right next to our front door disturbed our sleep all night long. The concrete rectangle of our balcony seemed bleak compared to the families we saw on social media splashing in paddling pools in their gardens. The walls of our windowless bathroom were constantly damp, the ceiling mildewy. ![]() Our time there had been a blast, mostly – we were happy in our careers, with a great support network of friends – but somewhere between parenthood and the pandemic, the inconveniences we’d always accepted as part and parcel of city living increasingly gnawed at us. Pregnant with our second child, I was excited, intensely nauseous and nervous about how we might cope with a newborn under the current strict social restrictions, and later the extortionate costs of having two children in a nursery.īy that point, we had lived in London for almost 15 years and owned a tatty but much-loved flat in Lewisham. My husband and I were squeezed around the dining table, one eye on our laptops and the other on our restless toddler. ![]() D uring those seemingly endless days of working from home in the midst of the first lockdown, we decided that enough was enough. ![]()
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