[fintstone]

We have moved dozens of times. The kids seemed to come out of it pretty well...but we did look very hard for the right schools/neighborhoods (and paid the price in money and commute to work). The last moves were after kids were out of the house. Better money/opportunity...but realize as we near retirement...that grown kids consider where they spent middle/high school or college home and gravitate there...and as a more senior person and my wife retired, we have neither family or friends locally. It is a challenge (especially for my wife) and we are considering moving closer to one of our kids in retirement. Unfortunately, moving gets harder when you get older as well (accumulation of crap, changing doctors, homes, etc.). I have no close friends that i am in touch with and have made none where I live now due to long hours and work-related travel/commute.

My wife's parents moved her in her senior year of high school and she still complains about it 45 years later as if it were yesterday. She did not make new friends or even try. She remembers her old school as heaven and her new school/community as hell. An objective analysis tells me that neither is the case...but it is all about perspective. I live in a rural area now, and there is little opportunity...folks do not do very well unless they leave (just like where i grew up)...service jobs and farming.