Move back home from foreign country?

Question

have you moved back to the usa(or elsewhere) after a long time abroad? what is your experience?

Answer 1

I lived 15 out of 17 years abroad, then moved back to the U.S. My 2 kids were both born overseas, and when we moved back, had never been to school in the U.S. They had the hardest adjustment. Every time they remembered coming "home" before, it was like vacation. When we moved back, they had to do chores, and couldn't spend every day shopping, seeing movies, etc. After the first couple months for my son (then 15) and the first year for my daugher (then 13), they were fine. The thing I remember most myself is being overwhelmed at the choices available at the grocery store! And how much smoother things run here.

Answer 2

I lived abroad for about 10 years and returned to the UK with my daughter, then 4 years old, who was born overseas

the best piece of advice I had was from a friend who'd come back a year or so before me ... she said don't think of it as "coming home", think of it as going to another foreign country ... she said when we thought of "home" we did it with a selective memory and through rose-coloured spectacles, so we probably overlooked all the frustrating things that had bugged us before we left

she was so right ... I took her advice and when I came back to the UK I looked on it as travelling to a new country ... it was specially true for me as when I came back, I settled in a different part of the country, not my home area ... also I had to do all the "setting up home" things you have to do when you move

my daughter was 4 years old when we came back, and had never experienced wintertime or coldness before, so I came back in spring so that she would have the summer and go gradually down into the colder months ... I'd been living in Zambia in Africa and she was born there ... she couldn't understand the light nights in the summertime and had great trouble sleeping ... she was also overwhelmed by the assortment of sweets and other goodies in the shops ... in the end I gave up and let her eat sweets non-stop, after a week she sickened herself and couldn't look at them any more

after a year both of us had adjusted just fine