Moving to Mexico
Sorry for the incomplete blog post on Moving to Mexico. Here is the entire blog:
You may know that my husband is a real estate broker here in Ajijic, Laka Chapala.
I am often asked “What was it like moving to Mexico with school aged children.
I tell them the absolute truth and that was that I have enjoyed every
We got our children (then 10 and 12) into grade level at a bilingual school and with the education they received here both of them had choices of American and Canadian colleges and universities with their bachilleratos (baccalaureates).
I had several misgivings about moving to Mexico. Would my children flourish and have as many opportunities that they would have in Canada? Also my mother was not well and I was not sure I wanted to leave her. I did not speak Spanish nor did my children.
We did, however, know the Eager family as my husband had gone to school with Michael Eager and they had been friends since they were 13. Also my husband’s parents knew the Eager family which also made me feel more comfortable.
We came for 2 recons one without and one with the children.
Finally, what pushed me over the edge was my wonderful mother-in-law saying “At the very least you will be giving your children the gift of another language”. They had been in French Immersion in Canada.
Our children think the greatest gift that their father ever gave them was moving to Mexico. They had gone to school with people that had never been out of Ontario. Doors have opened for them all over the world. My daughter got a job in North Carolina as vet tech because she spoke Spanish. Who knew that North Carolina had a large Spanish speaking contingent? They have both traveled and seen interesting places but always are happy to come home to Mexico.
In fact, we finally bought a 5 bedroom house as we realized they were really never going to leave even though I had stopped cooking with cheese.
The infrastructure of our little village in the sun has certainly grown over the almost 20 years that we have lived here and we have everything we need at our finger tips.
It took my husband 10 years to talk me into moving to Ajijic, Lake Chapala and,as I am fond of saying, “I wish he had found the right words ten years earlier”.
Our climate is arguably the best in the world and I truly believe that sunshine is good for the soul.
People come here for the weather but stay for the people and we are no different.
I also felt safer here than up north. In Toronto I would not let my children cross the street to go to Mac’s Milk but here they go anywhere and have been doing wheelies around the glorietas in La Floresta for years.
My children have indeed flourished, my mother was well looked after and I was there to nurse her before her passing and we now all speak Spanish. My children, of course are fluent and perhaps in my case – Spanglish would be a better description of my linguistic skills.