[iamphilrae]

I grew up in the same small Scottish town my whole life, as did all my friends. I'm now 32, live in London, have travelled the world, but best of all, I still very regularly see my old school friends. Giving kids culture growing up is one thing, but giving them the gift of being friends with the same people since they were 3 is amazing. My uni friends have come and gone, I barely see them, but I see my old school mates every few weeks and every time it's full of laughter and reminiscing from a lifetime together.

My dad worked in the oil business in the 80s and 90s and spent months at a time in places like Saudi, Norway, etc. In hindsight, I would never have wanted to move around with him as a kid. Sure I would have liked him at home more, but at least we all knew where home was.

[brianmcc]

+1 for small Scottish town :-)

we want our daughters to have exactly that, it's great to see our 2-year-old make friends that she could reasonably expect to finish High School with, and that might even last a lifetime

[tsotha]

I agree with this. My dad was in the military, and we moved every three or four years. I was always jealous of kids who had lifelong friends, and tired of always being the new guy.

[dclowd9901]

Its unrealistic to have expected to make lifelong friends with people whose only commonality you have is where you grew up.

[tsotha]

And yet a lot of people do just that.

[shalmanese]

Different strokes. We moved all over the place as a kid and I felt like it immensely broadened my horizons and gave me a richer life. I feel like I learned a great deal of humility through the experience, seeing radically different world views contrasted side by side gave me the ability to dissect my own beliefs and know just how fallible they could be.