Family relocation can be a stressful experience, and it’s definitely not a decision to be made lightly. There are many potential positives and negatives to this important life choice.
Career Advancement
The obvious benefit here is career advancement for your spouse. This can come with better hours, more money, or the type of work that will truly make your spouse happy. Depending on the circumstances, your family might also be avoiding a loss of income if there is the chance of layoff where your spouse currently works. Better hours can mean more quality family time. More money can mean less strain on the budget and more room to do fun things like go out to eat or take vacations.
Potential for Resentment
If you are both working, moving for one spouse’s career can lead to resentment, as it may shortchange the other’s. It is important to examine how the move will affect your own career if it is important to you. You should also consider whether you’ll be able to enjoy your hobbies and passions in your new location. If you do not have a new job lined up in the new location, this can also lead to a loss of income for the family.
A Chance to Start Over
Sometimes a fresh start is an exciting thing. You’ll get to know a new place, explore new local restaurants, activities, and make new friends with new and interesting backgrounds. If there is something you hate about where you currently live, this is the chance to get away from it. If your children suffer from bullying, this is an opportunity to start again.
A Loss of Support Network
You have most likely built a comfortable network of people around you where you live: friends you can visit to talk about your day, doctor’s you’ve come to trust, mechanics who you know are honest, mentors or spiritual leaders you go to for advice, other spouses or parents who can commiserate with your stage in life. Rebuilding that support network takes time, and until it is rebuilt your family will be under more strain.
A Chance to Grow Stronger as a Family
That isolation can also breed community, however. Taking on a challenge like moving together as a family may allow you to bond and grow stronger and closer through it. While that support network reforms, you’ll have to lean harder than usual on each other, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Though you will want to forge lessons through hardship you might want to consider options to speed up the process such as hiring movers.
Family relocation is a big decision, not to be made lightly. Make sure you fully consider the positives and negatives before taking the leap.
Information provided by Jia Jia International Moving Inc, a Markham moving company.