Removing the rose-tinted glasses
We took a trip to England for two weeks in August, my husband and me and our two kids (ages 5 and 1.5) to check out a couple of potential places to move to and get a general feel for everything.
First of all, our 5-year-old was a champ, but traveling with a kid under 2 is no joke. Picture a confused and overly tired toddler and multiple that by 14 days. It was all just too new and too much for her. She clung to me basically the whole time, sitting on my lap during every meal, sleeping in bed with me, hanging on to me for every outing. We had fun, but it was exhausting, and I was more touched-out than the newborn stage.
Besides the kid logistics, the trip was both great and strange. It’s weird to go somewhere you’ve never been before and be like, well, I guess this is where we’re going to live. I don’t know what I was expecting to happen. Fireworks? A parade? But it was mostly walking around as tourists and trying to imagine what it would be like to walk around as people who live down the road.
Here are some of the differences we noticed in England:
The parking spots are tiny! Hot tip - let your passengers exit the vehicle before you crunch your car into place, then shimmy yourself out the driver’s side.
You have to pay for parking everywhere. Even at the grocery store, they give you an hour or two for free before you need to move your car or get a ticket.
The healthcare really is free. We had to go to the minor injuries ward with the baby at one point and didn’t have to pay anything. In the US, our doctor just billed insurance over $1K for one specialist visit.
The playgrounds are smaller and more natural. All the equipment is narrower and shorter. There are more logs to walk across and rocks to climb on. In the US, it all feels a bit larger and more artificial and plastic.
Everybody is broke. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it feels like people are a lot less capitalist in the UK. Nobody seems to make as much or have as much or spend as much. I think it’s part of having a social safety net too, British people don’t need to hoard their money in case of a catastrophe like we feel the need to here in the US.
British TV is terrible. It’s all boring gameshows and boring reality shows.
Pub culture is alive and well. All the pubs we went to were warm and welcoming, great for families and providing a sense of place and community. It’s something we just haven’t been able to replicate here in the States.
Some things were much cheaper than expected. Drinks at the pub and food from the grocery store were cheaper than here in the States. Food prices have gone up here so dramatically since the pandemic, and it doesn’t seem to have had the same rise in the UK.
You cannot get a good cup of coffee. It’s all espresso drinks from coffee shops and instant freeze dried terribleness from the grocery store. Wtf?!
Driving places takes a lot longer than you’d think. There is so much traffic on the main roads, and the side roads are often narrow and winding. It takes longer than you’d think to get anywhere.
The countryside is beautiful and accessible. There are so many spots to enjoy the scenery or go for walks or stop for a pint.
The weather was mostly great. We’re so used to mosquitoes and humidity that make summer kind of unbearable in the Midwest. It was great to be able to go out and enjoy ourselves, and it was even jacket-weather cool a couple of times. British summer feels more like Midwest fall.
On the whole, everyone was so nice and everywhere felt family oriented. There’s just a general air of civility that’s missing in the U.S. suburbs. Maybe it’s because the roads are narrow so everyone has to take turns letting each other pass, but almost everyone we interacted with was kind and friendly.
I was surprised at all the pros and cons we ended up talking about. It wasn’t like, wow, we’re finally in England and it’s paradise! It was more like, huh, some things are really different and maybe not totally for the better. How have they not figured out pay at the pump? I thought they’d have more craft beer by now? Why is halloumi on every menu?
I think it was a bit daunting, too, to think about everything we still have to do before we move. It’s all starting to feel much more real and a little overwhelming. Eeek!
