Where to raise your children

Well, in fact, that is exactly why my 15 year-old daughter is not moving with us to the UK...she cheerleads for football and basketball and is very active with dance and cheering competitions. Practice started a few weeks ago, and she will be busy nightly (except for Sundays) with practices, games or competitions until the end of March!

England.  Definitely England.

It depends on you, your employment, where you live, etc etc... quality of life is so different for everybody that it is impossible for everyone to have the same opinion about something like this. There is no 1 answer.

But as for US: We are raising ours in America. For one, I've had more nightmares with the NHS than I care to think about, and I want to be as far, far away from it as possible. Comparing the schooling I got with the schooling David got, we want our kids in the US. We will have a much better salary in the US, with a much lower cost of living. We will have a bigger family there, and Philip will grow up with 5 cousins that are within 12 months of his age. We can have a bigger house, a bigger yard, 2 cars....

For us, definitely America.

Saf, you were clear and I was making a joke.

Marlespo, I agree with you about preferring America for raising kids, for the reasons you stated. In fact, when DH and I decide it's time to buy a home and settle in for good and ever, we plan to go to the US.

I do regret however they will never experience a Senior Prom

As a father of tree GIRLS .. I like that

If you have allot of money, you can provide an Ok education in America, but public schools are a disaster right now, I worked for the school system for 3 years (98-2001), and could see how unprepared the majority of High School graduates are when they graduate, even with college nowadays jobs are getting toughter to come.

Not to mention if you want to send your kid to a half decent college these days you need at least 20K per annum.

Most kids that get a good education are also up to their eyeballs in student loads when they graduate

Yeah, I am pretty concerned with the whole school thing as well.  We don't make enough per year to send them to a good private school, so the would have to go public.  There are so many things to consider!!  I'd be almost alone in England, which is one thing that doesn't sit well with me, but we'll just have to see how many goods outweight the bads.

The big thing with schooling in the states is that there is no federal mandate on education (yet) but rather each state makes its own rules for education standards and lesson plans (for the most part).  This means that a child transfering from one state to another can be far behind or far ahead of thier new classmates.  It also means that at graduation, you will have gained different bits of skills and knowledge than another graduate because of your state, or sometimes, your school district.

It's quite sad if you think about.  We are from the "most powerful nation in the world" and can not even standardize our education system!!

Yes, Frances thats a good point. When I was in my Junior year of HS in Indiana my parents decided to uproot us and move to Ohio. I was two credits behind there so in order to graduate on time I had to spend the rest of my Jr. and all of my Sr. year in a vocational school. I felt totally out of place as all my previous studies were purely academic.

My sons go to a Catholic school here. I was totally against it at first mostly because Im Jewish but the closest Church of England school to us was full and the Catholic school was directly across the street from us. Well four years later the boys are still at the Catholic school. They are receiving an excellent education there. When my middle son started there when he was 4, I was so worried about him. He was such a baby but by the end of his "reception" year he was reading beautifully.

The classes at this Catholic school are much, much smaller than those at the local Church of England school (public). My friends 6 year old goes to a public school and doesnt read nearly as well as my little one. Also at the Catholic school they teach morals which is so important at their age.

Im NOT plugging the Catholic schools by any means. I just wanted to share my story.

Pebbles

You don't even have to move from state to state.  The education I got in Miami (east coast of Florida) was 2 years ahead of the education I ended up with in Fort Myers (west coast of Florida). 

Just as a side note, but proms are becoming the thing to do here. My dressmaker for my wedding told me that in the spring she's overrun with both wedding and prom dresses! And this is just in Exmouth. If it's caught on there, it must be lots of places.

There are definitely pros and cons for both countries.
One con that I find annoying here is that there is a tendency to not let your children walk to school by themselves all through junior school--even if it is just down the road.  I used to walk home from kindergarden and it was 5 blocks from my house with a busy street and no crossing guard.

They have proms here in Kent.  At my church several of the mothers talked about looking for prom dresses.

I would love to raise my kids in the UK. My husband is so more educated then I am and I went to a private school. Kids in Europe I feel are more at tuned with what is going on in the world. I have always been interested in geography and history so I know what the world has been to, where as my friends are idiots when it comes to world issues.

Every place has pros and cons, as for the weather, Hubby wants to move badly. Hates the area we are in. We thought of places in the states to move, but you have earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards, tornados. Where we are is the safest place in that respect. So the UK is on the list at #1.

As long as the parents are willing to give 110% to their kids anywhere will be wonderful.

Personally, I think the US is great for raising kids.  I had an excellent education, and growing up in America is wonderful. American kids are generally very happy.

I'm definitely open to raising my future children in either country, I'm a LONG way from deciding that, but I think Marlespo and others are right in saying it really depends *where* you live and what your circumstances are. Every situation is different, and there are sooo many factors to consider.

Your kids won't necessarily have a better education and more enriching school experience just because they grow up somewhere in the UK. (From the horror stories my boyfriend has told me about HIS schooling alone, how rough it was and how uninspiring it was compared to mine, I can vouch for that!  ) 

Personally, I think the US is great for raising kids.  I had an excellent education, and growing up in America is wonderful. American kids are generally very happy.

Well, you must have been lucky and grew in a nice area/state/town

When I lived in MA .. I worked for the school system for 3 years as a teacher for TV Studio, it was quite depressing, we where suppose to be on of the best schools around, but there where just no prospects for those kids ..

In the other hand, I can say that when I moved to FL, things in the school system where allot better, and that reflected in the students (we also where on a great area)

cheers

Null

Thanks Nullmind, I actually moved and changed schools quite a few times growing up though, so I wasn't confined to just one area. I didn't mean to come across as someone who didn't realize they were fortunate to have a decent education.  I just don't think it's fair to say American schools are inferior to British schools, or vice versa, when there are exceptions. It obviously depends where you are and what your circumstances are. For that reason, you really can't say that one nation is guaranteed to give your child a better life or education over the other. Therefore, there's really no right answer, except what makes the most sense for you and for your kids' well being. (Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here?   )