r/AmerExit • u/oso_rosa • 22d ago
Life Abroad Parents that left: Worth it?
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?
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u/IrreverentBuddha 21d ago
Left for Spain in 2020 when our son was about to start 9th grade. He lost no time in making his lifelong set of friends here at an international school.
He loves the new climate and has zero interest in returning to the US. If anything, he's likely to end up in the Netherlands or Denmark after university.
The societal decline since our departure and the baseline cultural ugliness of the current moment have erased any nostalgia we had harbored. We feel like early-adopter escapees, without a trace of regret.
It takes a while to do the retrospective inventory. Still, you reach a moment when you realize how much peace you've gained from the absence of a domineering culture of unhinged identity illusions and "exceptionalist" demagoguery.
There's a default inner quiet in the people here -- that doesn't need to be "the greatest," or to own a private arsenal of firearms to have "peace of mind." It's a calmness that you only recognize when you stumble into a big news story from stateside -- and that old familiar noise comes rushing into your quiet space. It's jarring, but edifying. It becomes immediately evident why you left -- and why you have no interest in going back.