I saw this play out several times when I lived in NYC. Many friends would hit that point where kids were now a consideration and one of the partner’s was ready to transition to a new job. They’d talk about moving, and usually the spouse in a transition phase was ready to go elsewhere. But rarely were both spouses ready to go at the same time.

This isn’t a normative statement, but two income families are inherently less mobile (absent one spouse working remotely). It’s a world of trade offs...