How realistic to be an expat with kids? \ stacker news ~culture

2349 sats \ 15 comments \ @brandonsbytes 30 Jan culture

Reading @piecover’s post on living abroad, I realized this would be a good place to ask the question i’ve been wondering for a while.

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156 sats \ 2 replies \ @DudeJLebowski 30 Jan

I left the UK with my wife and 2 kids in 2021, we were in Greece for 3 months and we've been in Thailand since September 2021.

I can't stress this enough.

Do it.

Yes there are pros and cons, not every day is a holiday, living in a foreign country is sometimes more difficult than the comfort zone of your home country, but if I had to come up with a ratio of pros:cons it would be 100:1.

That said, Thailand isn't as cheap as it used to be. If I was looking for somewhere with a decent lifestyle and minimal cost of living I'd probably look to South America these days. There are still great places in Asia though if you look a little harder.

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @brandonsbytes OP 30 Jan

wow, that’s incredible. awesome to get a first hand report. Any place in particular in South America you have your eye on?

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @DudeJLebowski 31 Jan

I haven't considered it yet as we're pretty settled here, but once the eldest reaches high school age I think we'll look at alternatives, that gives us 3 years to plan.

82 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 30 Jan

Lots of angles to this.

How long do you want to move? 3 years or 10 years?
Do you have a job lined up? Stable source of income?
Is your partner on board with this? Will she/he be working/staying home?
How old are your kids? Younger kids adjust more easily.
Do you plan on learning the language? Do you already speak the language?
Do you want to live in the expat community or do you want to mingle with locals? The expat community is usually more expensive.
Have you ever lived abroad? How different is the new culture from your current cultural background?

To answer your question, how well your kids will adjust will mostly depend on how well-prepared you are. My biggest worry about moving will be more about how well my partner than how well my kid will adjust. He'll be fine.

53 sats \ 0 replies \ @piecover 30 Jan

I went to mexico with my kids a while back they were excited first week but then they start started asking to go back home after second week, so yeah not much of a long life doing expat with kids but it gave me a hint there

41 sats \ 2 replies \ @premitive1 30 Jan

Do you know where you want to live?

23 sats \ 1 reply \ @brandonsbytes OP 30 Jan

No, I would pretty much only move for cost of living, but only if it was realistic.

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @premitive1 30 Jan

If you can make as much money as you do now, regardless of where you live, then there are so many places you could live. I think it helps a lot with cost of living if you can learn the local language. I don't recommend buying unless you've lived somewhere for a good while.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @fm 30 Jan

expat here.. I havent moved with the kids.. Kids where born here. But we both still expats with kids. I dont know your current conditions and how is your family support back home. If you have it, you will miss it. We miss the grandparents help a lot. They often travel here and we wish we had them closer most of the times. But thats the only negative thing i guess. Other than that its all good. Kids learn several languages and are exposed to different situations that i firmly believe makes you mature in some way. I personally believe that everyone should move out of their countrie for at least some years.

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @alin 30 Jan

I live on the south coast of Spain aka Costa del Sol with my wife and 1yo baby (+ one on the way) and it's amazing - the weather, food (I love fish) and places to visit.

We moved here from Eastern Europe 6 months ago where winters are very cold and there's nowhere to go during the weekends because of lack of infrastructure.

The cost of living is like 20-30% higher but the quality of life is 5x at least so totally worth it.

55 sats \ 0 replies \ @fm 30 Jan

Nice place to live. Not easy being away from home with 2 kids..

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @southside263 30 Jan

IYKYK

“It takes a village.”

Having family / friends close makes life so much easier when raising a young family

33 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 30 Jan

I grew up in the home of an expat with kids (my dad was the expat and I was the kid.)

I'd say expat kids have their challenges, but not worse than other kids, just different. They'll struggle with their cultural identity and with fitting in, but they'll probably be independent thinkers and will adapt easily to new environments. That was my experience, anyway.

Should probably mention that I went to english speaking schools the whole time though, so the language barrier wasn't such a big deal.

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @ablunderfilledlife 30 Jan

Absolutely! Here's a couple that's been documenting their life abroad:

https://youtube.com/@OurRichJourney?si=wqwDYqlCDECzubRD

They also happen to be in the Bitcoin conversation.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @criptopanas 30 Jan

I know the channel, and I've never listen a good thing about BTC on their videos...They are more focus on real state & ETF.