We've moved innumerable times...moved homes, cities, states, countries and all of it felt very exciting for someone like me, someone who lived in the same home and city, the initial 20 years or so of my life. But after two kids 9 and 4, stability is the most basic factor we would want to provide for our kids. I agree that kids can thrive when you keep presenting them new situations, challenges and every move could be a learning experience for them. But when it comes to feeling like you belong to a place, when you want to think long term, when your kids get an opportunity to bond with their peers, build relationships without having to worry if his/her best friend will be in the same school as him for the next few years... all of it can be very disorienting to a young kid and an adult alike.
Living in a metropolis means that opportunities, network, education, housing all come at a very high premium. It also means you are under constant pressure to out-perform and I was wondering what would be a more livable place for our family. At that exact moment Cup of Jo, my favorite lifestyle blog with readers from around the world, posed a similar question to its readers and the comments started pouring in with very unique stories. What feels like home? Why do people move? What are the changing priorities in each one's lives? The comment section to this post turned out to be very informative, fun, insightful and reassuring for me. We as a generation are stuck in globalization, where mobility and flexibility to work from any part of the world comes with its own challenges/hurdles. With every location will come pros and cons and its very easy to look at a different location's pros when you are living in the cons of your current situation. You can read the post and its comments here, I would highly recommend it. My biggest takeaway from this post had to be "Bloom wherever you are planted!" and "There may be some truth to the idea that where you live shapes your personality but I think that for the most part, YOU create your life and re-create it and re-create it in all of the different places where you lay your head."
So let me know what factors played in deciding where you live now, in the comments below...
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Veena, I usually don’t respond on social media unless I am exhilarated by the writing or the content in the article. Yours have both so the responseJ. I read couple of your blogs and this one in particular I can relate to n respond to. We moved a lot when we were kids. I feel that really helped us to adapt to different conditions n owning them. In my case that moving made me strong and not wither to all the weather conditionsJ. I am sure one day both of your kids would appreciate thatJ. And of course like all the medicines this has side effects tooJ.
ReplyDeleteI personally think memories are made at home because of the family in it not just because of the Home itself. Of course after couple of days of outing in a resort or vacation rental kids can’t wait to get back to their home, their bed and toys etc... I think what they and we are looking for is the comfort of home, your body knows how and where to relax at your own place and may be not because you had the memories. As you rightly said we are in globalization. We are 10k miles away from what is/was our home where we had our best memories and now we are here trying to settle down in one place to call it ours. I think somebody already threw a stone in our serene water and we will have to live out those ripples. Our settling in life or calmness we experience is the short period between those ripples…
If I ever have to recall my best times I refer to living in US and the best memories… back to INDIA
I hope I made sense if not my total 3 minutes in typing and your complete comment space is wasted
Keep writing people not responding doesn't mean they r not reading. May b they r envy of ur writing :) :). All the best
I'm glad this post of mine compelled you enough to leave a response haha, thanks for all the kind words Rishanna. What you and I mean when we say childhood home is very clear, its where our grandparents and parents lived and continue to live and we are very lucky to go visit these places in all of its glory. I am hoping my kids will have the same kind of luxury too but being on the move constantly is going to complicate those emotions for them. On a lighter note, we need to find the guy who threw that stone in our serene lives lol!
DeleteWe all carry few stones of our own in our kitty. Sometimes to throw some on others pool n sometimes self goal😀. Keep ur passion going.
DeleteHaha true!!
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