My family moved to Switzerland 8 years ago. We couldn't find the type of life we wanted in the US.
17.09.2024 - 09:50
/ insider.com
My husband and I have three kids and four pets, and we've moved a lot in search of the American dream.
We started in New York, but after our first baby's open heart surgery, we returned to the Bay Area, where I'd met my husband Lynn. We missed our laid-back, California progressive-style life, and we wanted our kids to grow up outdoors, around creative thinkers.
We hoped for a lifestyle in which they'd see their dad most nights before bedtime, and I'd one day return to my career as a designer and art director.
Once in the Bay Area, though, we struggled to find a home, landing in a distant suburb where Lynn's commute from Marin County turned traffic-ridden and long. Trails surrounded us, but the lack of sidewalks made travel out of the car unsafe for kids. I had little time for my career or to leave the house after we decided to homeschool our oldest due to an exclusionary kindergarten environment and parent community that outside specialists said was harming him.
After eight years in California, Lynn got a job in Connecticut. We moved again, hoping Fairfield County's expansive lawns, award-winning schools, Rockwellian homes, and Lynn's new 10-minute commute would inch us closer to our dream. But in Connecticut, we again found no sidewalks to neighbors. Parents were commuting hours to work. Families living adjacent to us, many of whom had lived there for years, were strangers to one another. Safe ways into nature, bike lanes, and bus stops were nonexistent.
We decided to move beyond the US to Switzerland in search of our American dream. We've been here for eight years now and have found some differences with the US.
In Switzerland, most of our kids' new friends wandered out independently, walking, cycling, and using public transportation. Public paths, called "Wanderwegs," are everywhere, not merely in cities but in suburbs, around lakes, and over mountains.
Walkways provide safe, clean access to bus stops, trams, and trains, which was freeing for our kids.
There are a lot of rules to follow, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I soon saw how crosswalk laws, speed limits, waste laws, and noise ordinances provided a network of boundaries our family needed.
If my kids ventured out independently, they'd better have clear limits and a society willing to enforce and respect those limits.
Related stories
International families in Switzerland welcomed my family into a school community with people from over 40 countries with varied learning styles.
Though the Swiss initially seemed protective of their pristine mountains, lakes, and public spaces — the international community in Switzerland welcomed us into a massive multicultural melting pot. Despite vast differences, families invited us over, offered