Should I be afraid to move....? I am terrified!!

[lilacmama]

I too left my family in MI and had my doubts before I moved. I would cry and get all worked up about taking the kids away from family, leaving my friends behind and my parents who I would see 5 days a week.

Fast forward 7 months....I am just fine. Actually I only had 1 night that I was really missing my family. We didn't even go home for Xmas (did it all on Skype) and we've been fine. We did make a trip home in Nov and I have family coming next week, next month and in April. We are making another trip back in Aug and in Dec. Use Skype or any sort of video chat as it helps. We will try to see people every 6 months and I think that makes it easier.

My oldest daughter took about 5 months to adjust here. She is just fine now.

[CSD610]

Originally Posted by tercsi1

I have a husband and 2 boys, 7 and 11, I currently live on Long Island, NY. I am a pharmacist and both me and my husband have jobs lined up, but my mom and 6 siblings all live here on Long Island. I love Tam
pa, lived here before. This will be my final move. I will buy a house in Tampa and will settle there. But I am terrified to
move away family. I have no family in Tampa. Is moving away from family a mistake?

If you are that terrified of moving you should stay where you are and wonder for the rest of your life how much better your life "would have been" had you moved.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by BucFan

Nothing to worry about in Florida. Really. Nothing unusual here.

Gregory Matthew Bruni, Naked Intruder, Pooped And Masturbated In Tony Lands' Florida Home: Cops

something about this story seems very strange to me....how do you "drink" the contents of a vacuum cleaner, I'm guessing it was a wet/dry vac but the story doesn't make that clear.

[Ken E]

I'd stay where you are and visit as much as possible if you really like it that much down there. You'll be much better off in the long run. Theres a whole lot more to life than warmer weather a few months a year.

[JoJoCal19]

I think the best person to answer the question is YOU I would say that if you are the kind of person that has to be around family for every holiday, can't go a week or two without seeing your family, or depends on family to watch the kids to give you and your significant other time to themselves, you might regret it. I have friends that are that way and they wouldn't survive a month moving out of driving distance of their family. I have one set of friends who lived here in Jax their whole lives and a couple of years ago moved to Redding, CA. Funny enough at work I saw a new user request come through for her and her husband so I pinged her on FB to see whats up and sure enough they are coming back home as she said she was tired of being away from family. Luckily they were able to just pick up and move back and come back to work at the same company they had been with for years. You might not be so lucky.

I would recommend doing as someone else posted and stay away from seeing any of your family/friends for at least 30 days, maybe even 60, and see how you feel. On the other hand moving down towards Tampa I'm sure you would find plenty to do to keep yourselves busy and I'm sure family from up north wouldn't mind coming down to FL during the summer or even winter to get away from up there.

[StreetSmarts]

I think the naked, pooping, masterbating maniac had to be on bath salts or something. Even though its a crazy story and I'd hate that to happen to anyone I know, you gotta admit... its almost funny. I dont think he tried to hurt anyone, although it is bizarre and the guy was definitely on something.

[displaced23]

I don't know if you already moved or not. PP comments about not seeing family for a couple of months straight is a good one to do to "practice" before moving.
Sometimes a person in a family can be an initiator and the rest of the family moves too because it was such a good idea. Florida has no state taxes, probably the property and mortgage will be less expensive, and the health care field will likely pay a similar salary if not more because of the shortage compared with the population in Florida (making the move likely financially a good decision).

My personal story: we have two young children. We moved out of Miami years ago because it was too crowded and hot. We'd been-there-done-that for too long. My parents also lived in South Florida then and wanted to get out. We resettled in the Mid-Atlantic, and when they retired last year I was hopeful it would be to a more northern state. Nope, they retired in Brooksville, about an hour north of Tampa where I used to live in college.
During this time we have been fairly isolated in the Mid-Atlantic. Just us and work and the kids. We work a lot and have so much to do that our socializing is minimal and roots are pretty shallow here. We see my parents about 3 times per year. Maybe your family are bigger travellers than mine, but with school, work, holidays, etc, it's really hard to just drop down and see them like it would if it were just myself. When the kids are sick or there's a snow day or a day off of school, it's almost an Emergency because of all the scrambling that needs to occur to arrange childcare/babysitting. Instead we could just call them up to help out. My parents are not involved in any routine daily things with the children (playing, potential sporting or other events, etc) which I feel is a bummer. Get togethers for dinner are out. Casual coffees are out.
And, honestly, we're all getting a little/lot older too. If they started getting ill while we lived up there, I'd probably either have to take a leave of absence from work and either uproot the kids or be separated from the family for some time. I don't like to think of those things, but they're of course possible.
I personally feel like I'd rather be around family at this point in my life than worry about the climate (a main motivator to me to leave Florida, though Tampa is a little more mild than Miami). Facetime is great (or Skype or whatever), but it's not the same for us. To me, I'm starting to question my personal lifestyle and wonder why we're so far away from what's really important? For you, the things that may be really important could be found in Tampa. Who knows?
I'd also think about if your siblings also have children and how all the cousins interact together. I would think unless all your siblings had good vacations/salaries that you may be seeing them also only 1-2 times per year. That may not be very important, however.
GL with your decision. I did a weighted scale of positives of each place to live. You should consider what things are the most important and see which area fulfills the most for you.