I've raised kids in Europe and here in the US. I think as a family we were a lot closer when we lived in Europe, we were together much more, there was much less pressure to participate in everything and be the best at it, we lived in a much smaller home, we didn't have a car and our world in general was much smaller, even though we used to travel much more and I think we visited more museums and zoos because it was much cheaper there.

Our income tax rate was 55% (and we wouldn't have classed ourselves even as middle class), we had to contribute to our healthcare on top of that, our daycare wasn't subsidized and college wasn't free. Our property taxes were comparable to here and sales tax was 20%. And yet somehow we had more money than we do here.

Last edited by kikiandkyle; 02/05/12 07:52 AM.