Why We’re Leaving the UK with Two Toddlers

It’s not something we decided overnight. The truth is, this has been building slowly for months — a quiet feeling that the life we were living in the UK no longer matched the one we wanted for our family.

I moved to the UK alone when I was young, ambitious, and chasing a career. It was a place of opportunity, and for a long time, it felt like home. I met my husband here, and both of our little boys were born here. This country holds so many memories - our first flat together, our wedding, our babies’ first steps. But lately, it feels like the place that once gave us so much is slowly taking more than it gives back.

When surviving becomes normal

For months, life looked fine from the outside. My husband worked full-time as a barista, and I built small brands from home while raising our boys. But it’s not just about money anymore. It’s the feeling that everything has become harder, stranger, less human.

You can’t speak freely without worrying who’s watching. Homeschooling laws threaten parents who want to protect their children from a system that hasn’t changed since the 1800s - a system that rewards obedience more than curiosity. Healthcare has become a script of “take paracetamol and rest.” Crime rises while ordinary families are policed for opinions. And the digital ID conversations hovering in the background make it feel like privacy is becoming a luxury.

We’ve both started to feel that we’re raising our children in a place that no longer makes sense.

The turning point

There wasn’t one single moment that pushed us. It was all of it: the government bills that read like warnings, the constant talk of surveillance, the schools that no longer teach life - just compliance. Every small headline, every conversation at the kitchen table, every sense that something essential was slipping away.

We realised that if we want our children to grow up free, curious, and kind, we can’t wait for the system to change. We have to step out of it.

So we did. We gave notice on our tenancy, started selling nearly everything we own, and chose a date. In 47 days, we’ll be leaving the UK with our one-year-old and three-year-old. No house waiting, no job lined up — just a shared belief that life can be simpler, safer, and more honest elsewhere.

What we want instead

We’re not running away from life; we’re running toward it. We want our boys to grow up seeing how things are made, not just memorising facts about them. We want health to mean prevention, not prescriptions. We want days filled with sunlight and learning, not screens and rules.

Maybe it sounds idealistic, but I think a lot of parents feel it too - this quiet knowing that something about modern life is deeply off.

A new chapter begins

We’re leaving not out of anger, but out of love - love for our kids and for the kind of world we still believe in. A world where families make decisions for their children, not governments. Where curiosity is encouraged, and freedom isn’t traded for convenience.

This move is scary, yes. But it’s also hopeful. And if you’ve ever looked around and thought, surely this can’t be it, maybe you’ll understand.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is leave the noise behind and build something real.

Follow our journey as we count down the last days in the UK, sell what we own, and take the leap toward a calmer, freer life together.