Long story short, I live in NL and my company offered me a job in China for 5 years, with the full intention to come back after. While the offer is very tempting, I'm making this post strictly to get some perspective for my kids.

If we do this, my kids would've grown from 5yo to 10yo and the younger one 2yo to 7yo. If we go, I intend to put my kids to international schools there, but when we come back i would prefer they go to Dutch schools (i looked into dutch schools here, some are really good).

I am worried they may have bad experience adapting, especially when we move back here later. I worry for bullying, isolation, loneliness, loss of friendships for them. I worry for cultural shock. I also worry if they can still do well academically if we move around between different schooling systems. My number 1 priority is to make sure my kids are healthy, happy, secure (physically and mentally), so I wouldn't go if this isn't going to be a positive thing for them.