A little more about the “why”
Whenever we tell people we’re moving to Mexico, they ask what motivated this decision. After my obligatory joke about the tacos, I share that Eric and I have been talking about this for years, since our early days of parenthood, when – deliriously stuck in the grind of diapers and preschool – we would fantasize about traveling or moving abroad, shaking up our routine, exposing the boys to different languages and cultures. But our work and families are here in the Bay Area / US, nothing was forcing us to make the decisions, and honestly it was just hard to think about logistically – and we were TIRED.
When we visited Mexico City in 2022, it was the first place we had been to in awhile where we both looked around and thought, “Huh. We could live here!” CDMX, like everywhere, has its problems, but it was familiar enough to give us some footing, but different enough to provide an opportunity for cultural and language immersion. The wheels started spinning. We debated endlessly about timing, especially given the boys’ education. Nayan was getting ready to start middle school – would that be the perfect time to move, or a horrible time? Should we wait until they were all older? I read endless blogs about the ideal time to move abroad for families.
Unsurprisingly, there was no right answer. There would never be a perfect time, and there would never be a bad time. We were going to spin endlessly in a cycle of indecisiveness if we were looking for some sort of sign. We had to make a choice, and do whatever we could do to make it work for all of us. And if things were rough – well, we can do hard things.
So then it was about sequencing the big decisions, which for us were school, work, housing (here and there).
- We wanted to make sure the kids could be enrolled in school in CDMX. A lot of families we read about did homeschooling abroad, but that wasn’t the right choice for us for several reasons. So we researched bilingual schools in Mexico, made a shortlist based on recommendations, our preferences, and locations, and applied (all schools were private). We were lucky that our kids got into all of the schools we applied to, so we had a lot of choices, and we finalized our decision in March.
- Once school was finalized, this was a “go” decision for us, so then we had to make decisions about work. We’re lucky that both of our jobs are (largely) remote, so we informed our organizations who allowed us to work remotely from CDMX. I am still in the process of navigating paperwork with Bridgespan to make it official, and there are definitely some tradeoffs there related to compensation, benefits, etc., but it’ll work out. I’m also trying to go down in allocation to allow me a little more space while we’re in Mexico.
- Simultaneously, we had to think about housing. We had to rent out our house here in Oakland to cover our expenses and make things work financially, and in a stroke of serendipity, our amazing neighbors were getting ready to do a renovation, so they are planning to rent out our place while we’re gone! It’s perfect timing. Finding a place in CDMX is proving to be a little trickier – we want to live in Polanco, where the kids’ school is, but it’s pricey and it’s hard to rent for <12 months, so we found a place to land once we arrive for a month. This is where I’m trying to temper my planning tendencies and be more open to “it’ll all work out” thinking.
We’re ~2 months from our departure date, and I’m feeling good, albeit a little nervous. The “to-do” list is a mile long, but I know we’ll get through it. We always do.