Generally I think moving kids is bad unless they're already unhappy where they are. When I was 13 my parents moved me to a smaller town. Though I understand why it made sense for my dad's career at the time, starting over in a place with a really different, more rural culture couldn't have come at a worse time for me. But maybe I was just going to be an awkward teenager anyway, so who knows what would've happened otherwise.
Glad it worked out. I think 10 is still a better age to move a kid than 13. When we moved, my younger brother was 10 and he was mostly fine. When you start to get into the teenage years the social uprooting is more of an issue. Younger kids tend to be less divided into social groups, and are generally easier going about making new friends. But it depends on the kid -- I'm sure popular, socially adept kids have no trouble most places.We moved from a larger city to a very small, rural "village" in Dec of 2018 (300 kids/grade vs 75). At the time, my daughter was 10 and we definitely had our reservations about it. We never intended for our daughter to go to a large school and wanted to move earlier, but 2008 kind of donk'd that one up.
In the end, the move has been superb for her, she's really taking well to it and it turned out to be a great decision.
It's always a risk though...
I was extremely embarrassed about it for years. I'm pretty sure that now, things would have been handled differently.
We moved from a larger city to a very small, rural "village" in Dec of 2018 (300 kids/grade vs 75). At the time, my daughter was 10 and we definitely had our reservations about it. We never intended for our daughter to go to a large school and wanted to move earlier, but 2008 kind of donk'd that one up.
In the end, the move has been superb for her, she's really taking well to it and it turned out to be a great decision.
It's always a risk though...