As is obvious from the posts, it all depends on you. We moved from RI and my wife said she wanted to move but we "lost" the entire first year as she dealt with separation anxiety from being away from her family. We are glad that we are here now, but would I put her through the stress again? I doubt it.

We can from down South. Wasn’t hard to leave at all. Only miss the beach as all our kids moved to Denver.

Nope, not hard at all. Family is important but it’s not healthy at this point in their lives for us to plan our life around them.

We bought 7 years ago...before fully retired and arrival of grandchildren. We have sold our log cabin on a few acres in rural NH and bought a condo for our "summer time" up north. Grand kids are close and visit daily when we're there. We rarely stay a full season in TV without a short visit back north. As others have said, training wheels are off and best of both worlds for us until grands have no time for adults. YMMV

Ohiobuckeye
 

After 8 yrs. we moved where they were. I talked to some people that said they’re young, let them come & visit you here. I guess they were right but we went closer to them for other reasons. We do miss TV!

Not a Problem
 

Like some that will post their responses, we have the best of both worlds. We bought here in 2014 but maintained our Ohio home. We were still 100 miles from our son and his family, so seeing the grandkids was a once-a-month (if that) trip. We then sold that home and moved within five miles of the family, to where now we can see the kids as often as we want. We stay five months in Ohio and seven months in Florida. Typical "snowbirds" but with Florida resident credentials.

Our 3 kids left us, which freed us up to leave NJ 😁
We talk to them each (and their kids) several times a week on FaceTime in person and they all visit us and we visit them (not too much lately). I think it’s fun getting them for chunks of time! We are all really doing great with this plan!
Bonus: we live 4 miles from 86 year old Mom now, which I never did since I was 19.

Our 3 kids left us, which freed us up to leave NJ 😁
We talk to them each (and their kids) several times a week on FaceTime. We were seeing them in person when they all visit us and we visit them (not too much lately). I think it’s fun getting them for chunks of time! We are all really doing great with this plan!
Bonus: we live 4 miles from 86 year old Mom now, which I never did since I was 19.

It is incredbly hard, especially if young grandchildren that you saw frequently. I’ve wanted to return as soon as we moved in, but my husband wanted to stay. The compromise - we keep Allegiant in business either me flying back each month, or flying them here. That’s a lot of trips / money back and forth and still missing time with all inbetween.
Think hard about that before you commit.
In a do-over we would have thought harder over what most important and gotten our priorities straight — stayed and come here winter.

I helped raise my grand children for 15 years! They were like my own kids. When it was time to retire we came here (9 yrs ago). I realized my husband needed to live in an active community and he fell in love with The Villages. He had 4 happy years here. Now I’m left alone and when I go back to NY to see the kids and grands, they are very busy in their own lives. As the grands get older, they don’t want to visit as much. No night life here for them!

Grandkids Up North
 

Decided long ago not to follow my kids around. I have a life of my own to live and I am doing just that. But I have a home that they will enjoy staying in whenever they are here, and I will visit them as well.

Absolutly not my family loves coming here

Our granddaughter was born just after we purchased a house in The Villages. Now, since our granddaughter was born, the other half doesn't want to come down to The Villages. Some winters, I come down here by myself and the other half stays at our place up north to be close to our son and granddaughter. Some other winters the other half comes down to The Villages for maybe a month or so, and then goes back up north.

We're dealing with that now. We live in Indiana and just bought a home in TV. Our grandkids are 13, 7 and 5 and we see them often as they live pretty close by. My wife isn't ready to leave them behind. We'll be retired by next November and plan on snowbirding until they get a little older, then we'll sell our house here.
We just don't think having 2 houses is sustainable for us longterm.

I don't want 2 homes to take care of and financially for us it doesn't make sense. We do have family and lots of longtime of friends here. So we're thinking after we sell our house here we can come back for a few months and just rent a place.

Gandkids Deficite
 

Yes. When we moved here in 2014, we had none. Now we have 2 granddaughters 3 & 7. I still have a hard time living far from my 3 boys let alone now having grands. All of us try to get together physically during the year. Thank goodness for FaceTime for communicating! I
was worried about them getting to bond with us…not an issue.
I agree that you never know where your kids lives may change and move to. I told our boys, “what a better place for mom and dad to live than in the vacation capitol of the states”! They enjoy when they come to visit here and all it and Florida has to offer!