stooly

My husband and I have told his stepmum and dad. My brother and mum and our close friends, but we have decided to not tell anymore family or friends until wee are accepted to NZ. Everyone we've told asked us why we explained but life for kids, open spaces, no mortgage, less stress and actually watch our kids grow up. Once they heard our reasons they were happy for us.

Samantha

Birdey

You swollow hard and get on the plane. My mom and dad were going to do the 10 pound thing, but mom got cold feet and so I got to grow up in England instead of Perth! (not complaining) We went along similiar lines other people on here, that was because we are strong in who we are,(thanks to faultless upbringing!!! massage the ego) we have to go and see the dream rather than just imagine it. I was terrified of waking up at 45 too old to get PR and wishing I had done it.. My Dad totally got that. We also made small provison towards there first flights out here and now they are so excited about comming out.
Our families did act as if we were about to die when we left, but after about 3 weeks of being here they forgot all about us. As for mates they only got upset when v. drunk at our leaving doo and all had plans to come visit..
Maybe its a reflection on us, but we lived in Oz 3 years ago for just under 2 years before returning home to give the UK one last chance before going for PR; and not one buggar came to visit!!\\ We're not holding our breath this time!
Life goes on as normal for every one thats doesnt get on the plane with you.
If you know that this is something you need to try, its worth the risk.

Vanou

No one believed us when we said we were going to Canada (couldn't go to Australia straight away because hubby didn't have enough work experience). But we went through the 15 months process, arrived in Montreal with our suitcases 3 years ago, had a rough couple of months and lived happily ever since. Family was content with the compromise (geographically speaking, Canada is nearer than Australia therefore less depressing) as they actually all wanted to believe that we would like it here enough to forget our dream about Australia.
Unfortunately for them, as soon as hubby was eligible, we started the immigrating process all over again, this time for our final destination : Melbourne. My father was always the supportive one, being a globe-trotter himself and he's happy that we're giving him another opportunity to travel. My mother is so afraid of travelling that she hasn't even come here to visit us, even though we live in Quebec (less stressful for our poor French speaking families). I'm pretty sure she will never muster the courage to come and see us in Australia and that makes me sad because I'd love to show her this beautiful country. But we can't be put off by that. It's our dream, our life and we just have to think about ourselves first. Anyway, we've never been family orientated, and we haven't been back to France since we came here (with only 2 weeks holidays, we chose to visit North-America instead). I just hope they will get used to it, because they won't see much of us once we'll be in Australia either. They know it and are sad, but happy for us too.
My in-laws are a different story. They hate it that we live so far and have been visiting every 8 months or so. They secretly hoped that it wouldn't work out for us in Canada and that we would come back to France and forget about this strange idea of living in another country. But now they are terrified because we've started the immigration process again and we proved already that we were serious about it. So, Australia has just become the taboo subject, as Canada once did, and it's very difficult for us, especialy for my husband, not being able to share our excitement as we're getting nearer to fulfill our dream.
They're all looking forward to see us before the final big move, as we're planning to spend a few weeks in France before going. It'll be nice to see our friends again, but we're dreading to see our family. It's going to be very hard on all of us, but there's nothing we can do about it. Our mind is set. Sometimes, being selfish can actually make things easier, for us anyway.
Vanessa

Chris000

we had mixed reactions when telling the rellies.My parents have property here so the news wasn't that earth shattering to them and as they have done the flight numerous times, they encouraged us all the way and will visit no worries.The 'other side'-well my mother in law didnt really believe that it would happen.We had a seventeen month wait for the visa so she convieniently 'forgot' about it so when the visa was granted and we phoned her she said that she thought it would never happen.!!! we are still working on her to visit.my sister never asked one question about the whole thing!!! as expected.Friends all thought it was a really exciting idea, but not for them.Too scary giving up everything and starting again.Guess they miss the point that thats what its all about!!!Anyway,regardless of opposition you MUST do what is the right things for yourselves and live you own lives.You can't expected someone who has lived virtually in the same house all their lives to grasp what all the fuss is about or appriciate your dreams.Its a hard move but you only have one life.

sally1968

Having read through all the postings on this thread i have to admit i am quite shocked at the reactions many of you have received from you family members.

Most of our family have been very supportive with the exception of one of hubbys sisters. Even then she has never accused us of being selfish, she's just shocked and finding the whole thing quite scary.

As for telling the children, we told ours (9 and 6) as soon as we had decided that we were going to try to emigrate. We wanted to know that they were ok with the whole situation and felt that as this would involve them leaving all their friends and their school that they had a right to make their feelings heard. Both are quite bright and understand that this is not something that is going to happen in the next few weeks but is going to take months. They have just let it slip to the back of their minds and get on with life. If only we could do that

Sally