For the sake of my marriage, please, (lol?).
Backstory: I have lived in rural SW MO my entire life; my husband grew up in STL and moved here with his parents when we were in middle school. We had our kids, etc., and have been struggling in the local economy for the last 12 years. He has determined that his best chance of making a better life for us (he's kind of old-fashioned about that...) is to move back to the city and exploit any and all connections he has with one of the unions. We have resisted this path for many years, because it was the way he was raised, and is not conducive to the type of parenting we wanted to do (ie: constant travel, not being there to see the kids grow up, etc.). But now the kids are older, and we have to think about our future rather than use them as an excuse not to become financially stable.
The plan: husband leaves in the spring, gets as much work as possible, and stays with family until we can sell our house. After that, if all goes well, the kids and i will join him, whether that's a few months or a couple of years in the future. In the mean time, i will continue to try to find full-time work here to pay the bills, though it's been six months with no solid leads. We'll buy a house in STL eventually. He'll earn his union card. I'll find a job there doing something, and the kids will either go to school or (if we don't like the district we end up in) we'll go back to homeschooling.
Or, you know, we'll crash and burn and be poverty-stricken, but sadly (or encouragingly?), really no worse off than we are right now (which is why we're doing to all this trouble in the first place).
So...obviously my husband doesn't mind city life; his entire family is there. But I am not so much into this. There is friction between his relatives and me. My own family would be several hours away. And i do not like visiting the city; can't imagine living there. Traffic. Crowds. I prefer neighbors that are too far away to see or hear. I like being able to shoot out my back door and it's no big deal (that's how we say 'hello' in rural neighborhoods, btw). I don't like ordinances that would limit my personal freedoms.
But i hear there are good things in cities. Libraries, sidewalks, parks, and perhaps even like-minded people. These could be nice. Tell me more about these kinds of things, please? I will be arriving with three kids, ages approximately 8, 10, and 12.
Backstory: I have lived in rural SW MO my entire life; my husband grew up in STL and moved here with his parents when we were in middle school. We had our kids, etc., and have been struggling in the local economy for the last 12 years. He has determined that his best chance of making a better life for us (he's kind of old-fashioned about that...) is to move back to the city and exploit any and all connections he has with one of the unions. We have resisted this path for many years, because it was the way he was raised, and is not conducive to the type of parenting we wanted to do (ie: constant travel, not being there to see the kids grow up, etc.). But now the kids are older, and we have to think about our future rather than use them as an excuse not to become financially stable.
The plan: husband leaves in the spring, gets as much work as possible, and stays with family until we can sell our house. After that, if all goes well, the kids and i will join him, whether that's a few months or a couple of years in the future. In the mean time, i will continue to try to find full-time work here to pay the bills, though it's been six months with no solid leads. We'll buy a house in STL eventually. He'll earn his union card. I'll find a job there doing something, and the kids will either go to school or (if we don't like the district we end up in) we'll go back to homeschooling.
Or, you know, we'll crash and burn and be poverty-stricken, but sadly (or encouragingly?), really no worse off than we are right now (which is why we're doing to all this trouble in the first place).
So...obviously my husband doesn't mind city life; his entire family is there. But I am not so much into this. There is friction between his relatives and me. My own family would be several hours away. And i do not like visiting the city; can't imagine living there. Traffic. Crowds. I prefer neighbors that are too far away to see or hear. I like being able to shoot out my back door and it's no big deal (that's how we say 'hello' in rural neighborhoods, btw). I don't like ordinances that would limit my personal freedoms.
But i hear there are good things in cities. Libraries, sidewalks, parks, and perhaps even like-minded people. These could be nice. Tell me more about these kinds of things, please? I will be arriving with three kids, ages approximately 8, 10, and 12.