The chance has come up for us to buy a new retirement bungalow on the Isle of Wight.  It hasn’t been built yet, but plots are being reserved already on a gated complex.  The proposed bungalow is in our price range, near to amenities, and in a place that we love and which is familiar to us.  It’s for over 45s, so we’ve just about scraped in (lol)!

It’s a bit of a quandary, as I’d dearly love to move there, lock, stock and barrel, and so would Sam.  However, our sons would then live 200 miles away from us, and could only visit us if they pay a costly ferry trip and then pay for somewhere to stay overnight.  We could of course travel and visit them, but as the years go on and we become older, then it might not be feasible for us to do this anymore.

Would you go, or would you stay close to your children?  We don’t really want to burden our sons with looking after us in our dotage, as they are busy at work and have more than enough to do every day.  One son is a general manager of a company, and another is a regional manager of a national company and has just applied for the next step up the managerial ladder, which will be one step below director level.  So as you can see, both sons will not sitting around waiting to attend to our every need.  Nor would we expect our daughters-in-law to care for us, as they have their own parents to worry about.

Of course we would miss them and their families hugely.  Just how much we would miss them we’re not able to tell at the moment, as we see them quite regularly.  Both of them live in Suffolk; one son only lives 3 miles from us.  We could probably visit them quite frequently at the moment, but as I said before, this might not be possible in times to come.

I’d love to know what you would do!  Even better, have any of you had direct experience of moving away from your children in your later years?  Do you still think it was/is a good idea?