Missing DC (well, MoCo) ... move back?

[Anonymous]

We're in DC now, and are contemplating a move to New England for work and because we're a little tired of some of the aspects of DC. It would be helpful if the PPs who are now living in places they hate due to the hockey moms/wine in sippy cups would just mention where they live to help the rest of us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We moved away "for the quality of life" and moved back after 2 years. We just...never found our people there. No one seemed to care about the things that I care about (politics, travel), and folks were passionate about stuff that I find boring at best (sports, college football).

I tried so hard to find folks who shared my interests and values, but kept running into the same "types." Overinvested hockey moms, Pilates moms who think "mommy juice" in the sippy cup was the height of edgy, and uber-crunchy homeschoolers who didn't vaccinate and spent their time mocking the "sheeple."

Yes, DC is stressful and expensive and we gave up a big house in a leafy suburb (full of racist jackasses) to live in the city, use a lower ranked school than we had in Whitesville, probably work harder, but we're much much happier.


OP again - I could have typed this. I really appreciate the replies.

as someone considering jobs all over and worried about what it really means to move somewhere totally unfamiliar (DH and I have lived only in urban coastal cities), would love a general idea of where you guys are....

I'm the PP above who references overinvested hockey moms. I was in the suburbs of a major Midwestern city that is not Chicago, in a neighborhood that is constantly being written up as one of the loveliest suburbs in America, but I found it stifling and impossible.

Unless you were there in the witness protection program, why not just name the city? Frankly, you don't exactly come off sounding all that great.

Ugh, troll with the fake personal attacks. Your posts are tiresome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We moved away "for the quality of life" and moved back after 2 years. We just...never found our people there. No one seemed to care about the things that I care about (politics, travel), and folks were passionate about stuff that I find boring at best (sports, college football).

I tried so hard to find folks who shared my interests and values, but kept running into the same "types." Overinvested hockey moms, Pilates moms who think "mommy juice" in the sippy cup was the height of edgy, and uber-crunchy homeschoolers who didn't vaccinate and spent their time mocking the "sheeple."

Yes, DC is stressful and expensive and we gave up a big house in a leafy suburb (full of racist jackasses) to live in the city, use a lower ranked school than we had in Whitesville, probably work harder, but we're much much happier.


OP again - I could have typed this. I really appreciate the replies.

as someone considering jobs all over and worried about what it really means to move somewhere totally unfamiliar (DH and I have lived only in urban coastal cities), would love a general idea of where you guys are....

Why so coy?

I'm the PP above who references overinvested hockey moms. I was in the suburbs of a major Midwestern city that is not Chicago, in a neighborhood that is constantly being written up as one of the loveliest suburbs in America, but I found it stifling and impossible.

Probably Shorewood (Milwaukee) or Chanhasset (Minneapolis)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We moved away "for the quality of life" and moved back after 2 years. We just...never found our people there. No one seemed to care about the things that I care about (politics, travel), and folks were passionate about stuff that I find boring at best (sports, college football).

I tried so hard to find folks who shared my interests and values, but kept running into the same "types." Overinvested hockey moms, Pilates moms who think "mommy juice" in the sippy cup was the height of edgy, and uber-crunchy homeschoolers who didn't vaccinate and spent their time mocking the "sheeple."

Yes, DC is stressful and expensive and we gave up a big house in a leafy suburb (full of racist jackasses) to live in the city, use a lower ranked school than we had in Whitesville, probably work harder, but we're much much happier.


OP again - I could have typed this. I really appreciate the replies.

as someone considering jobs all over and worried about what it really means to move somewhere totally unfamiliar (DH and I have lived only in urban coastal cities), would love a general idea of where you guys are....

I'm the PP above who references overinvested hockey moms. I was in the suburbs of a major Midwestern city that is not Chicago, in a neighborhood that is constantly being written up as one of the loveliest suburbs in America, but I found it stifling and impossible.

Unless you were there in the witness protection program, why not just name the city? Frankly, you don't exactly come off sounding all that great.

Ugh, troll with the fake personal attacks. Your posts are tiresome.

Not liking someone's online comments/persona doesn't make one a troll. This doesn't really help make you sound like a great person, btw.

[Anonymous]

Not identifying which poster I am in case somehow someone I know ends up on this board, but South Jersey. Geographically near Philadelphia but NOT Philadelphia in any way or sense. It’s like a region that is all Haegerstown. Some people love it and it is totally their place. More power to you, it’s just not MY place. Philadelphia and the Main Line ... if I had started over there, things would probably be very different.

[Anonymous]

aside from Ethiopian food, wtf could you possibly miss about this place??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not identifying which poster I am in case somehow someone I know ends up on this board, but South Jersey. Geographically near Philadelphia but NOT Philadelphia in any way or sense. It’s like a region that is all Haegerstown. Some people love it and it is totally their place. More power to you, it’s just not MY place. Philadelphia and the Main Line ... if I had started over there, things would probably be very different.

Ha! I'm one of the PPs who left DC and regretted it and I often think that the whole thing might have felt different if we'd been in a nearby (by Midwestern standards) big college town. But we weren't and there's no guarantee it would have been any better in the long run. I have zero regrets about leaving Hockeyland. It was the wrong choice from the go, but we tried to convince ourselves that proximity to family and "quality of life" would make up for all the things we were giving up. It didn't.

None of this is to say that someone else wouldn't have been perfectly happy, but for folks who dislike driving, want racial and economic diversity, and live and breathe politics, it was never the right choice for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:aside from Ethiopian food, wtf could you possibly miss about this place??

If you don’t love it, maybe move?

There’s lots to miss - free museums, access to public transportation (with all its flaws, I know), extensive arts (performing and visual) opportunities, amazingly diverse community, lots of food options for people with major dietary restrictions, outstanding public school system, countless private schools if that’s your thing, wide range of professional opportunities in the public and private sector, excellent public college/university options ... personally also family support, childhood friends, and a vibrant, welcoming church community.

[Anonymous]

I don't live in DC but have thought about moving. It would be the first time in my life I would move and live long term outside of my hometown (which is a major city).

I don't have anything to add to this thread but just want to say 1)Kudos to all of you for taking a chance and trying something new, you learn something incredible about yourself and what you're made of even when things don't work out as planned, and 2) You're honesty about the move not working out is still very inspiring and gives me the courage to go ahead and try it, despite the unknown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't live in DC but have thought about moving. It would be the first time in my life I would move and live long term outside of my hometown (which is a major city).

I don't have anything to add to this thread but just want to say 1)Kudos to all of you for taking a chance and trying something new, you learn something incredible about yourself and what you're made of even when things don't work out as planned, and 2) You're honesty about the move not working out is still very inspiring and gives me the courage to go ahead and try it, despite the unknown.

Thanks - I moved around a little as a kid with parents who didn’t do a traditional career track, which has increased my level of comfort with trying new places. I’m realizing, however, that moving some place new as an adult is WAY harder than it was as a kid where you had a built in network of school and extracurricular arranged for you by your parents!!

[Anonymous]

... but it can be done if you research the new location and ensure it has everything you’ll be looking for. I clearly didn’t research my new location, South Jersey, enough. I also had a year where I wanted to shift my role and was actively looking in a variety of places so would have been in a bad place if I hadn’t left my current job that hiring season. Limits your options - will do it differently this time!

[Anonymous]

This is OP again. Do people feel guilty uprooting family when the breadwinner is unfulfilled/disgruntled at work but the rest of the family is settled/happy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:aside from Ethiopian food, wtf could you possibly miss about this place??

Ethiopian food is so gross. That horrid spongy bread. So overhyped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP again. Do people feel guilty uprooting family when the breadwinner is unfulfilled/disgruntled at work but the rest of the family is settled/happy?

How many people do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:aside from Ethiopian food, wtf could you possibly miss about this place??

I have to second this. You can defend the metro, "cultural institutions", "diversity" all you want, but I've lived in northeast for 10 years and I've found this city to be largely inhospitable, expensive, divided, and largely overrated.

Cant wait to move, honestly.