kips

Excuse me !!!!!!! I was born and raised in Bradford and had a very happy time there thank you. Don't knock it if you've never lived there.

spouse of scouse

For every example one way, there's an example for the other. My point was, I don't think it's necessarily true that most people who say they're migrating to another country for better opportunities for their kids are copping out.

quoll

Sorry, its just the one place in UK my Tom tom refuses to drive me coherently through! I've taken to going quite out of the way to avoid it otherwise I seem to go round and round in circles. My friend's son lives in Bradford (or Bingley) and is also fiercely patriotic of the place and he's still under 30 and wouldnt move anywhere else! I guess anywhere north of the Don is alien to a southerner.

quoll

I think they usually give it as the reason rather than the "we fancy an adventure" reason which wouldnt get quite the same response from their nearest and dearest who would think they were just being selfish. I doubt anyone making the move does so if they dont have a bit of an itch for adventure. I shouldnt think anyone in their right mind would "do it for the kids" if it meant they knew that they would be unhappy.

Damo-LFC

I doubt many parents would do it if they knew their children would be unhappy. Thing is though when your kids are 3 2 and 4 weeks they aren't in a position to tell u if they are happy or not - it's up to you as their parents to do what you think will benifit them in the long run. Admittedly there is a sense of an adventure for you as an adult as well as if it wasn't, does that mean that once you have hit 6th gear and are cruising on life you should just carrie on cruising, or look for extra? I don't follow the news on Aus at all, however I do in this country I just see doom, gloom and dispair. Comes to something when u watch the news and its all murder etc and you don't really bat an eyelid? Or maybe that's just me as its the norm? History shows that most generations of children have bettered the previous but I genuinely can't see it happening with the children of the future. Anyways I'm off to find a loft hatch with solid supports

spouse of scouse

I don't think anyone would do it if they knew they would be unhappy, either! Just because they don't think they'd be unhappy, doesn't mean their primary reason can't possibly be to give their kids more opportunities (whether it turns out that way or not)!

Not much point either of us going on about it, we each have our own point of view and I've always been more than happy for people not to share mine.

Good luck to everyone moving, for whatever reason, to wherever!

spouse of scouse

Do what you feel is best for you and your family Damo, that's all that matters. And don't be hanging yourself, we haven't lost the Derby yet!!

Damo-LFC

Still 0-0 !!!

spouse of scouse

I know - it's shite!!!

quoll

Absolutely, parents should follow the best opportunity for them at the time. It's pretty safe to say that one first world country is going to be very much like any other, it's not like you are proposing to move from Sierra Leone or North Korea after all in which case it would be obvious to blind Freddie that the life will be better for the kids. I guess I tend not to read the Daily Fail whose prime objective is to get its readers to go tut tut at the current state of the world - bad news sells papers. You'll find just the same youth unemployment, bullying, youth suicide, depression, crime, murder, gang issues, drunk driving in Aus as you do in UK - it's just another first world country with first world welfare, health, education and aspirations.

brits1

We migrated because we wanted to try living in a different country, there is good and bad everywhere in this world and on our travels we found where something was good etc there was something not so great...natures Ying,Yang. With hard work, good parenting and hopefully good children you can have a good life mostly anywhere.

BadgeIsBack

I think's it fair to say that most parents won't deliberately make their kids unhappy or rather actually not know. It's possible that they make choices feeling that the children are not old enough to make a choice, especially if careers are still being forged.

Beside, moving away from family is not some new thing. I know people who left accidentally to another country and never got around to moving back - it was almost an accident. You have to remember that many familes move from one county in the UK to another or from one side of the country to another due to employment opportunties. People have been moving around the world professionally for years - it happens. I am actually of the opinion that some families are desperate for mobility if their family line did not move around much. The less mobile the family, the more selfish it might appear, of course, to the ones who did not grasp opportunities.

The whole "we're doing it for the kids/it's an adventure" is all a bit of a crock in my opinion. Most of the real drivers if they are negative tend not to be shared publicy. Rather, I've always said I think any reason given politicises and/or rationalises the reason. So talking about the UK's problems paints a more 'considered' decision. Years ago on this forum people were flirting with living a dream, mortgage free, and with a car and a boat....and this might have made them feel guilty...now Australia is more expensive..it's a bit different.

I think we have to remember that a great many migrants have never really left the part of the county they grew up in and reach middle age and find their lives are no where as interesting as they might have been once their kids are at the end of primary school/in secondary. They discover they are not different from the people they grew up with, or their parents...so it's almost a mid-life crisis..

I also think we have to be careful of assuming a situation: not everyone reads the Fail, not everyone who moves to Australia is escaping from something or is automatically assuming it's paradise. And I think we can be sure that there is a proportion of people who will do well, and others who will regret it, but it's hard to know in advance. Personally I think migrants wanting adventure should know when they see it! and have experience with handling new situations, and in an extreme scenario, those who don't get on with their family and or escaping, need to realise that they might change their minds after an enforced seperation...