Me, my wife and child currently live in London and are in the process of buying a house in Bedfordshire. While we were visiting my parents (who live there) we stumbled upon an absolute steal of a house with 4 bedrooms, garden and everything we wanted in a home (for context, we currently live in a 2 bedroom flat in Greenwich, London).
While we are generally happy with our decision to leave London, what initially swayed our decision was the offer of “grandparent help” from my parents who said they would look after our kid on the weekends to let us go on date nights or long weekend holidays and sometimes help with school pickups etc.
However, we are currently having second thoughts as a) we do love London despite wanting to get away from it due to the crime and poor schools and b) it would increase our commute from 30 mins to 1hr30 and will be a significantly more expensive commute (although this is probably offset by the fact that our mortgage will be less than our current rent).
My question is- is the extra space and help from my parents worth it against the trade offs of living in a more “boring” and rural place and having a longer commute?
Would love to hear from ex-Londoners and young parents who also live near their own parents.