I can hardly believe it, but it has been six months since we said goodbye to Los Angeles and embarked on our next family adventure of moving to Columbus, Ohio. We took the photo above in front of our old home together before we left for the airport. My husband stayed behind for twelve weeks for work, and I flew with my mom to Columbus, stayed with a friend for a week until our belongings arrived via our U-Packs, and officially moved into our new home. I moved to a new state, new town, new home with three small boys all by myself. To a town we had never spent any time in and into a home we bought without being able to see it in person (thank goodness we had an amazing realtor who happens to be married to my best friend). When I reflect back on all of that, I cannot believe I made it. I had a ton of help from our parents and friends, especially my mom who has been a lifesaver throughout the hardships of a move and my solo-parenting weeks. But I moved with my kids, I got our house ready to move into, I got my oldest enrolled in a new school, I got our home unpacked and set up, and I mostly did it on my own. It is amazing the things we can do when he have to 🙂
The first couple of months were hard without my husband but were also new and exciting and fun. We were seeing friends and family more, we were getting to experience the end of summer and a real fall, and we had a new house that was all ours with a big yard and so much potential for making wonderful family memories. We watched birds in the feeder out of our front window and found frogs on our walk to school (yes, we can walk to school!) We stayed up to see lightning bugs and dug in our backyard to find worms and planted flowers and watched the leaves go from green to red and orange and brown. We played in our backyard a lot. We visited my best friend and my kids played with her kids and we met their chickens and barn kittens and my boys were in heaven. We tried our best to soak it all in.
Then at the end of October my husband arrived and everything fell into place. We started to explore our new city more, and we have fallen in love with Columbus. We are members of COSI (our science museum), the Columbus Museum of Art (which has a wonderful kids area), and the Columbus Zoo, which is possibly the best zoo I’ve ever visited. My husband and I took advantage of a weekly daytime sitter and went on day dates and explored new areas like German Village and the Short North and Clintonville. We’ve found places we love to eat and have discovered a great indie movie theater. We miss the beach and Griffith Observatory and LACMA, and I miss my hiking trails, but we’ve found some wonderful new places here in our new home city. And there’s so much more to explore once spring comes.
It hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows. In fact there hasn’t been nearly enough sunshine and there’s been way too much snow. The snow was fun at first, but I’m seriously over this brutal winter that is hazing the crap out of us. Seasonal affective disorder and cabin fever have really set in, and with it a level of homesickness for LA that is hard to describe. I don’t miss the traffic or how it would take hours to just run to Target or the supermarket. But I do miss being able to take my boys outside and feel the warm sun on my face. It’s cold y’all!
Even more than the sunshine and warm weather, I miss my Los Angeles friends. Meeting people here in the burbs has proven harder than I thought it would be. Charlie’s school is a good one and we can walk there but I don’t feel the sense of community that we had at West Hollywood Elementary where he went before. We really loved the kids and parents we met there. For example, when Quincy was born we had food delivered to our house for two weeks, all from parents of Charlie’s classmates. We just celebrated Quincy’s second birthday, so we’ve been here as long as he was in school that year and I only know two of the moms’ first names (and it isn’t for lack of trying, there just isn’t as much opportunity to connect with other parents). I think many people grew up in this area and have their friends and family already and aren’t in the “meet new people” mindset like we’re used to in a big city. We have some friends that we already knew before we moved here but we’d love to meet some people in our burb or neighborhood. Meeting new people that you connect with is always hard, but I’m hoping once we all come out of our winter hibernation that people will be all warm and friendly 🙂
I’ve had a few people contact me who are thinking of making a similar move (from CA to the Midwest) and asked me if I would still make the same decision or if we regret it now that it is winter. And as much as I’m slogging along through these cold months and stuck inside because it is too cold or flu germy to leave the house with the kids, I don’t regret the move at all. I miss LA tons. But the move was the right one for us and the boys are so happy. Life is easier and simpler here and things take less effort. And financially it was a great decision. We love being closer to our families. But we’ll always miss Los Angeles and our LA family and I’m looking forward to getting back for a visit.
So that’s our first 6 months in a nutshell. I’m really looking forward to the next 6, where we’ll thaw out, finish some projects around the house, and get back outside. I can’t believe 6 months have already gone by — just look how much they grew by comparing those last two photos. Insert all the bawling emojis.
Have you ever done a big city to suburb move where you needed to meet new people or acclimate to new weather? I’d love to hear how long it took you to adjust or any tips you have.
Hi Chandra! You’re amazing, really. I don’t know how you did it either but you guys appear to be happy and thriving! We lived in Columbus for five years after college and loved it, but yes, you are right that the friendships there are deeply established. Most grow up in Ohio and stay in Ohio so they’re still friends with their hs buddies. BUT the people are so nice too and I know you’ll make more friends soon enough. Quality over quantity! Yay Frederick family!
Thank you! That is definitely something I didn’t anticipate. I’m sure it will just take time 🙂
This was so nice to read!
We are thinking about doing the same. We moved to a new place in the city two years ago where we didnt know anyone, but since it was in the city it really didnt matter as everyone (Family and friends) was still fairly close.
We were hoping it would give us what we wanted. But it didnt.
The people around here are too much into themselves, even though we have tried and tried to be social for so long. The people are also much wealthier than us, and it starts to feel like a problem because my kids get to se that the other kids go all the time on holiday, have new bikes etc. This wasnt apparent in the beginning, but now it is starting to be a problem for my 5 year old. She of course wants the same.
So we have decided to move again, but it feels scary! Are we crazy thinking about moving again?! This time we want a house (not a bigger apartment like this last time), but it means moving to a new place AGAIN where we dont now anybody AGAIN.
I am mostly worried about the kids who will have to start in a new kindergarden AGAIN (we love the one they are in now) and also finding new friends in a new place.
How was it for Charlie to start a new school?
What if none of the neighbours want to hang out? Will we just feel alone and isolated, and regret the move? Would love a post about making adult (parent) friends:-)
But by moving, we will get a big house with a garden, we will have more space. We will have a longer commute to work though, but since the housing prices in the new area we are looking into are so much cheaper, we can work less hours and still have (more) time with the kids.
I am scared that moving again still wont get us what we want when it comes to the social part. But the kids will love it, having a garden and such.
Oh, the pressure we put on ourselves sometimes…Did our parents really put such thing into matter when they took these kind of decisions?
Sometimes it feels like it was so much simplier when our parents where adults.
Or is this just adulthood?!? (sorry for any typos, English is my second language as I am Norwegian living in Oslo :-))
Charlie is still trying to meet friends (he is always a little slower to do this anyhow) but he loves it here and always says he is glad we moved. I definitely think doing it earlier rather than farther into school was the right decision for us. Good luck on whatever you decide!
Cincinnatian here. I feel like most people hibernate in the winter, so it’s harder to make friends during the colder months. We moved into our current area last winter and it took us months before we met anybody.
I think you’re right! Hopefully when we all thaw out we’ll meet some great people.
I’ve never moved across the country- I’ve lived here in Columbus my whole life- but the first thing I’d look for if I had to move away is a YMCA (or something similar). The zoo, CMA, & COSI are great, but I’ve always found that it’s easier to make Mom-friends in smaller settings- think Mommy & Me classes, etc. I’m not sure where exactly you are in Columbus, but you can also check out the Parks & Rec website for local classes, kids gym time, and pre-school age activities for your littles. As soon as the weather warms up, people will start coming out, and there will be a lot more going on!
Yes, we did join our local Y and my son goes to preschool through our local Parks & Rec dept. But due to the awful flu season we were sort of avoiding the Y/childwatch until things got a bit better (we were picking up every new germ here in Ohio and I didn’t want to risk it. I do think that as things thaw out, we’ll meet some more new people.