- Kim Guillois loved living in Texas but decided to move closer to her family in Massachusetts.
- She swallowed a 20% pay cut and bought a house in a suburb with a much higher cost of living.
- The 35-year-old said emotional support from relatives and help with childcare made it worthwhile.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kim Guillois, an occupational therapist and mother of two. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My husband, Max, and I moved from Texas to Massachusetts in 2021 when our oldest son, Theo, was 1.
We loved our time in the South, but after six years and having a child, we asked ourselves, “Why are we still here?”
I met Max, 35, who is French when we worked for an engineering company in France. In 2015, we seized the opportunity to move to the US when the firm launched a subsidiary in Houston.
We found it to be a dynamic, welcoming city with great people from across the US and the rest of the world. We made life-long friends. It was sunny all the time; great to be outside exploring a new place.
It was also cost-effective. Graduate degree salaries are pretty good down there because it’s a major metropolitan area. When I decided on a career change, I received in-state tuition at a public university to get my graduate degree in occupational therapy.
I was at the beginning of my second trimester with Theo when the pandemic hit. He was born in August 2020.
It was quite isolating because a lot of our friends had left the city due to COVID, and we had no relatives nearby. Max’s folks were in France, and mine were in the Boston area.
We wanted to be within an hour’s drive of family
Theo was in a $1,300-a-month day care, but it kept closing due to health scares. We’d have to take time off work to look after him. It felt relentless. We knew if we wanted to have a second child, the childcare situation would be untenable.
If we wanted to see either of our families, it meant hours of travel by plane and using up our limited vacation time.
After the pandemic, Max’s job was fully remote. It didn’t matter where we were based. When we first thought of leaving Houston, we contemplated somewhere on the northeast coast, such as Virginia. It would have been a day’s drive from my family in Boston.
But, practically speaking, we realized it would be better to be within an hour’s drive in case something suddenly came up with Theo.
The only problem was the math. In Texas, you pay federal taxes, property taxes, and sales taxes, but there is no state income tax.
Houses in the Houston area were half the price of Boston’s, where they sell in a matter of days. We love our small starter home, but for the same price in Texas, we would have had a pool, an HOA, and tennis courts.
Luckily, interest rates were relatively low at the time. But we bought our house sight unseen for around $50,000 above asking. We relied on relatives to check it out in advance and waived the inspection.
I had to take a pay cut
Max’s salary remained the same, but I was forced to take a 20% pay cut for an apples-to-apples job. I was not pleased, and I let everyone know. I went from working in a pediatric clinic to an early intervention setting. Both jobs were nonprofits, but the pay rates for healthcare in my field are lower overall in Massachusetts versus Texas. More graduates with occupational therapy degrees want to live in the greater Boston area.
Meanwhile, the rate of Theo’s new day care was $2,200 a month. We had our second son, Charlie, last year. He goes to day care part-time because I reduced my workweek from five days to three after his birth.
Still, it’s been a trade-off. The quality of education in Massachusetts is good, and we can fly very quickly to Europe from Logan International Airport.
Best of all, it’s been a very nice change for us to be close to my family. Our boys actually know my parents and don’t have to be reintroduced to them every few months. We don’t have to miss any family events, and my parents and siblings help with childcare, especially when Max is visiting his family in France or traveling for business.
Almost every week, Mom and Dad can pick up Theo from pre-school for a fun activity. Max and I can have date nights, knowing the kids will be safe with my parents or one of my siblings or cousins. The going rate for babysitting in our neighborhood is $25 to $30 an hour, so there are savings, too.
Our move has made me the non-prioritized career person in the household. It has put me in a more financially vulnerable situation than if we were both able to contribute equally to our careers. But it has been the best choice for our family psychology.
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