We have five sons and ten grandchildren so I feel your pain. At the same time I feel the strong pull of the Villages. I was totally sold on the Villages the minute we came here. Not so my wife, (is this beginning to sound familiar?) she was concerned about moving to a new place and was also torn about moving away from some of our grandchildren. Some are around the Boston area where we live now, but others are a twelve hour drive away in Pittsburgh. We are moving at the end of the month to the Villages.
The key for us was that I need a lot of activity to stay contented and spending the winter up in New Hampshire all alone watching TV was sending me crazy. I think my wife is moving mostly for me, but I am beginning to feel she too is ready for adventure. She opposed almost all the moves we ever made. Some were corporate moves, others not. We have been in this house for 24 years. I would say most objections to change are really fear based. Will I like it there? Will I fit in? Will I miss my family all the time? But for me the chance to
change the direction of our lives is just so exciting I can't resist. I ride a motorcycle and there is nothing like riding down a steep grade and curving around some wild roads. My wife, on the other hand, gets scared, so she doesn't ride with me.
Anyway, we have agreed to come back often to visit our family. Flights are
inexpensive. We also plan to go on a road trip each summer and visit each of our children for three to four days so 5 children x4 days equals 20 days. We will then go sightseeing to Canada or Maine and then catch them all on the
way back to Florida. That is another 20 nights with our children. So you can see we will be on the road for 2 to 3 months.
Another thing that allayed my wife's fears is that I said if we don't like it we can always come back. The nice thing about this move in my mind is that we will no longer favor the family around Boston, but will more evenly distribute our attentions. That seems much fairer to me. I love my family as much as anyone, but I also have a sense of adventure and I want to lead a healthy
active life. I think my wife will also benefit from this change. I am beginning to see positive things happening already to her. She had gotten herself too deep in responsibility in a local church and she had become more like an employee than a volunteer. She is the type of person manipulative people know how to overwork with effusive compliments. She is starting to see that you don't have to work all the time. You can take time for yourself and have some fun. You don't really have that much time left.
The family can also visit us in the Villages. Who doesn't like Disneyworld?
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