“Trust me, when you move abroad, you’ll never want to go back.”
It sounds dramatic, doesn’t it?
But there’s something that happens when you step away from the life you’ve always known. You start seeing your everyday routine differently.
We know because we did it.
We’re a British family of five who decided to leave the UK and start a completely different chapter abroad. What began as a huge decision quickly became a journey of discovering what we actually wanted from family life.
And now we’re living in Türkiye.
Does that mean everything is perfect?
Absolutely not.
Moving abroad comes with challenges. There are language barriers, paperwork, unfamiliar systems, different customs and plenty of moments where you wonder whether you’ve made the right decision.
But then there are the moments that make you stop and think…
Why would we go back?
For us, it’s the lifestyle.
It’s being able to step outside and feel like the day has more possibilities. It’s discovering new places as a family, trying foods we’ve never eaten before, exploring different towns and beaches, and watching our children experience a world outside the environment they grew up in.
It’s also the little things.
A Turkish coffee in the morning.
A spontaneous trip somewhere we’ve never been.
Sitting together as a family after a long day.
Watching the children become more confident, independent and curious because their surroundings constantly encourage them to experience something new.
And perhaps the biggest change has been our mindset.
When you live abroad, you quickly realise that there isn’t necessarily one correct way to live your life.
The things you once thought were essential suddenly become less important.
You start asking different questions.
Do we really need more stuff?
Do we really need to follow the same routine as everyone else?
What kind of childhood do we actually want our children to remember?
Those questions don’t automatically lead to moving abroad.
For some families, staying exactly where they are will be the right decision.
But for us, leaving the UK opened a door we didn’t know existed.
We aren’t saying that everyone should pack up their belongings tomorrow and move overseas.
We’re simply sharing what happened when we gave ourselves permission to consider another way of living.
Because sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing until you experience something different.
And perhaps that’s why the idea of going back feels so strange now.
We haven’t just changed our location.
We’ve changed what we consider normal.
So, trust me when I say this: moving abroad doesn’t necessarily make you want to leave your old life behind forever.
Sometimes it simply makes you realise that there might be another life waiting for you.
And once you’ve experienced that possibility…
going back can be a very different decision.