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These are changes that are particular to us, compared to our lives when we were in our 20s and early 30s. In no particular order:
1) We spend almost all of our free time travelling to rural areas to take part in our hobbies.
2) We go out much less now and tend to socialise with friends a lot less. This is partly down to the fact that all of our friends have had babies, which we don't plan on doing ourselves, and have disappeared off the radar. Always interesting to observe that some people have babies and still socialise a lot but others have a baby and swear that their social lives have ended for good. It wasn't that long ago that we'd be seeing friends all the time but that has changed in our friendship group as people have more kids and bigger mortgages :D
3) I can work from literally anywhere and my wife can be very flexible in what she does.
4) Finances. We can afford a lot more than when we first bought in London. With the budget we have we can either buy a four bed house with small garden in our current local area or, well, something far nicer for the lifestyle that we have elsewhere (don't want to boast about our budget).
Basically, we live in a desirable place in London but don't actually participate in any of the things that London has to offer and our lifestyles have changed over the last ten years or so.
Stonehedge-
Makes sense. Still aligns with my ethos of choose the location that you want. If you want to live in the countryside and can work remotely or locally, then it's great. If you still have to schlep to the city, I don't think it's worth it.
Personally, if my current social situation in Norwich disappeared I'd probably move to Edinburgh, but that's indicative of my extroversion and desire for noise, people-watching and filter coffee I don't have to make for myself
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Always interesting to observe that some people have babies and still socialise a lot but others have a baby and swear that their social lives have ended for good.
So much depends on how your situation plays out.
A mate had their baby in the summer who was particularly easy, and all our friends lived near each other a the time. This meant they could just walk to a local (which was local to everyone else) and hang out with a sleeping baby that periodically needed to be fed and changed.
Conversely ours had sever cholic for the first 4 months and cried almost solidly if awake. It's hard to practically go places in that situation - even before get to the mental health side - then when you do it involves one of you going off to a corner to rock the baby until either they sleep or you go home. Once that passed they were super active and frustrated, so again going anywhere necessitated stimulation which made engaging with the people you're with impossible.
We'd always planned to be relaxed parents using routines only as a rough framework. Unfortunately it's turned our that Hugo2.0 is a happier more manageable baby with a fairly rigid regime.
TvH
hugo7
What actually changed tho? Curious