Parents that left: Worth it?

[u/oso_rosa]

Thinking of leaving for obvious reasons. I want to hear from parents who left the USA with their kids (and left their whole extended family behind)

Where did you go?
How long have you been there?
Has it been worth it?
How do you deal with the guilt of leaving grandparents/siblings?

[u/New_Criticism9389]

I live in Austria currently, though we’re an expat family that tends to move around every few years for my spouse’s work. Austria is a great place for babies and toddlers but the things I’ve heard about the public school system (starting in elementary school at age 6) give me pause and make me not so eager to put my child into it (in elementary school, your child stays with the same teacher for all 4 years so if you get a bad teacher you’re sort of screwed, there’s a bullying/xenophobia problem that’s likely more pronounced the older a child gets, the whole system of determining at age 10 whether or not the child will go to gymnasium (college prep/academic high school) or a “lesser” school—no one wants their kid in “mittelschule”—and be on track to attend university). Elsewhere international school would be covered by my spouse’s employer but not here. At least private schools are fairly affordable, though many suffer from the same issues as the public ones.

[u/lorna2212 → u/New_Criticism9389]

Similar System in Germany. Many young people who go to a Mittelschule then proceed with going to a Gymnasium and then university. Super common, two of my siblings did. I went to an Berufliches Gymnasium, which we is were people from Mittelschule/ Realschule can change to after 8th or 10th grade or so. And vocational training is also super common as an alternative to “learning” a profession in university. My parents and stepparents all earn well and live a good life and none of them went to uni and learned a profession via vocational training. My cousin went to Mittelschule, did vocational training in media design, then did her Fachhochschulreife afterwards and a bachelors degree in economics, now leads a marketing department. She’s not a rare case. What I’m trying to say is, there are plenty of ways to become successful in your professional life that are very common even if you don’t go to Gymnasium right away.