💬 Moving the family from Riyadh to Khobar was harder than the job change

Three years ago I took a better job in Khobar, and we moved the family from Riyadh mid school year. On paper it was a simple decision, more salary, a shorter commute, and the sea twenty minutes away. I thought we'd be settled in a month, maybe two, and I was wrong about that by a long way. Nobody tells you that the job is the easy part of moving cities with a family. My daughter had to change schools in the middle of grade two, and she cried every morning for the first few weeks. She'd left behind her best friend from our building in Riyadh, and video calls didn't fix that. Getting her a seat was its own headache, the school we wanted had a waiting list, so we took what was available. It took her almost a full term before she stopped asking when we were going back home to Riyadh. My wife had it harder than me, and I didn't see that properly until months later. In Riyadh she had a group of Hyderabadi families, a Quran class on Thursdays, a tailor and a clinic she trusted. In Khobar she knew nobody, and I was out at work from seven in the morning till seven at night. She told me later that those first six months were some of the loneliest she'd had since coming to Saudi. The practical stuff added up too, and most of it cost more than I'd planned for. Rent in our part of Khobar was higher than expected, the bus was extra, and we needed a second car. Finding a doctor, a mosque we liked, even a good Hyderabadi biryani place, it all took longer than I'd budgeted. I'd say give it a full year before you decide whether the move was worth it. We're settled now, my wife works part time at a clinic nearby and has her own circle of friends again. Would I make the same move again? Probably yes, but I'd plan it for the summer holidays, not the middle of the year. Have you moved cities in Saudi for a job, and how long did it take your family to feel at home? I'm curious whether it gets easier the second time or whether it's the same all over again.

My wife struggled more with the move than I expected when we relocated from Jeddah to Khobar two years back, took her nearly eight months to find a doctor she trusted after our usual clinic back home had known her medical history for years. Small things like that get overlooked when everyone focuses mainly on school admissions and housing during the actual planning stage.