I joke with my friends that I live in the Unofficial Sixth Borough: New Jersey, the borough where they banish half of New Yorkers who have kids. Tale as old as time, right? Live in New York, make a life there, love it, make a baby there, love it, then leave. It's not the only New York story, of course, but it's common enough. In fact, in my last office, four other women had followed the same trajectory.
The New York ex-pat mamas share a common enough story. We often look very similar on paper: non-New York natives, college educated, economically comfortable. But our motivations can vary. Sometimes we're returning to the areas where a lot of us grew up to raise our kids among family and friends we've had long enough that they basically qualify as family. Sometimes we think that as much as we love New York, we're ready for a change of scenery and this new life change is as good a reason to go for it as any. Sometimes it's strictly financial: We couldn't provide the kind of life for our children in New York that we could elsewhere, and we are privileged enough to have the resources to move.
But whatever our reasons, there are some things that only we can appreciate.