Everything that you've written makes sense, especially for someone only six months in and if you treat it as an adventure and don't examine things too closely. The OP, though, seems to be considering a permanent or at least a long-term move back here.
As you've said, you've traded a spacious home, mobility, and great healthcare for cramped quarters, public transport, and meh healthcare (not so bad if you go the private route but a hand-in-your-referral-note-and-wait-three-weeks sort of nightmare if you go the public route and aren't bleeding profusely at the moment that you visit the hospital). The things you cite in HK's favor are the weather (the heat and humidity and pollution didn't bother you, so kudos to you), the food, the convenience of having a personal servant, and the like.
Then, there's the fact that, as you say, there was no real poverty in the Netherlands but by living here you are immersed and immersing your child(ren) in a sea of people who are generally quite poor -- half or so of the people here live in public housing and there are many tens of thousands living in cages and in corrugated-metal-roofed illegal shacks atop other buildings. Old people scavenging for recyclables from garbage bins are a commonplace sight.
Maybe it's good for children to spend some time living in a society with an enormous wealth gap between a comparatively small group of haves and a much larger group of have-nots. I don't know how much research, if any, has been done on that issue but I can imagine the interesting conversations I would have with my child when they asked me why so many old people were pulling such large stacks of cardboard around or why there were ramshackle metal constructions on the tops of a lot of buildings across from glittering megamalls.
I have been on HK for seven years, and don't regret it. You will never find a big city in the U.S. that is as safe as Hong Kong, so that is one advantage. I see kids coming home from tutoring class at 10pm alone, and its normal.
Great that the kids are safe....but not exactly an idyllic childhood is it? Having to make their way home from a tutoring class at 10pm alone. They should probably be home in bed at that time after playing with their friends after school or spending some time with their parents. Not in Hong Kong!
I am about to become a father and I really don't think Hong Kong is a good place for children to grow up. I do hope to get the opportuntiy to move away in the next few years. That said, there are certainly far worse places and many people in the world aren't in a position to be able to live here...shouldn't complain!
If I were a parent and looking at giving my child international exposure for "a few years" that would be one thing - and yes, it would be great - but "moving back forever" is entirely different. That, I might not consider.
Do I ever regret having moved to HK? No. For the sake of the experience: my wonderful helper who has made my life so much easier(I'm a full-time working mom of two); and for the low taxes and all. Do I want to move back home? Every day. Just for my children's sake for all the reasons dear giant mentioned. BTW, due to tougher competion in general, kids in international schools are not taking things easy either.
Although the following might sound highly philosophical but you can only regret or not regret it for sure at the end of your life. As Steve said in his Stanford graduation speech, you never know what this experience is good for or not.
Last edited by Morrison; 16-11-2011 at 08:47 PM.
That's the trouble with teh interwebz.
I've been here 15 years and I love it.
Dear Giant's been here a while and for him every day's a living nightmare.
Who knows what your experience will be like if you come?