
An American father has gone viral after sharing why he and his wife decided to leave the United States and move to Spain with their two young daughters. Lincoln said the turning point began while he and his wife were shopping at IKEA when they received a terri
fying message from their children's school.
"One day my wife and I were at IKEA when we got a message from the school. There was an active shooter on the preschool grounds. Our daughters were locked in a closet. We stood in a furniture store not knowing if our kids were okay," he wrote.
Fortunately, their daughters were unharmed.
"They were. But we weren't the same after that," Lincoln added.
The experience left a lasting impact on the couple and intensified concerns about safety in the United States.
The family faced another major challenge when Lincoln's wife suffered a broken ankle.
According to his post, the injury resulted in significant medical expenses despite the family having health insurance.
"Then my wife broke her ankle. With good insurance, it still cost us nearly $20,000 across two years," he wrote.
The financial burden of healthcare became another factor that pushed the couple to reconsider their future.
After the two incidents, the couple decided they needed a change and agreed to move out of the United States. "We looked at each other and said we can't keep doing this. So we made a plan," Lincoln explained.
The family spent time travelling across Europe before deciding where to settle permanently.
"We spent time traveling across Europe, fell completely in love with it, and eventually settled in Spain on a Digital Nomad Visa," Lincoln wrote.
The visa allows remote workers and self-employed professionals from outside the European Union to live and work in Spain while earning income from abroad.
Eight months after relocating, Lincoln says the family feels safer and enjoys a better quality of life.
"Eight months in, our daughters have never been safer. We walk everywhere. We don't think about shooters. Healthcare doesn't bankrupt us."
Internet users reacted to the post by calling out America’s healthcare system and other issues.
“400k Americans moved to Europe since Trump is back in office, welcome,” wrote one user. “I bet that 20k was for a scratch. American healthcare is a joke,” another posted.
One viewer commented, “Not an expat but a refugee. But: a warm welcome here, I hope you enjoy it and have a better life here.”
“The American dream: to escape America,” another quipped.
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More