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Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Old Mar 24th 2009, 9:15 pm
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Default Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Just curious. For all those (particularly those with children) who have made the move to Australia, are you glad you went for it? Would you do the same again if you knew then what you know now? Or do you wish you'd stayed put?
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 9:24 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Very glad we came... as expected it was much harder in a lot of ways than we thought it would be, but fortune favours the brave...
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 9:27 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by DrWho
Very glad we came... as expected it was much harder in a lot of ways than we thought it would be, but fortune favours the brave...
Can I ask, do you have children, and if so, have they handled the move well?
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 9:34 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Hi, yeah would have to say we are glad we moved. Must say thou I am a kind of no regrets person, if it had not gone as planned would have chalked it down to experience & moved on.
I do have a 22 year old son, who came out 1 year after us & thankfully at present he is enjoying life here.

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Old Mar 24th 2009, 10:00 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

I am really glad i moved to Australia. We've been here nearly 18months, and are in the best situation we're ever been in, for work, social life and also financially. We're about to buy our first house, and we've been together nearly 6 years. We have 2 cars, and have made lots of new friends.

I have family here, which helped, but my hubby left all his family behind, plus his son (age 14, who lives with his mum) from a previous marriage. Plus our close friends that we left behind.
It was a hard decision to make, but we knew our life in the UK was not going anywhere.

My sister moved here, as a single parent of a gorgeous 3 year old (biased auntie? me???). She also knows that it was the best thing she ever did.
She's been here nearly 3 years, and my nephew settled very well into daycare, and now he's in his second year at Primary school.

I think bringing older kids (10-18) would be hard, but long term the lifestyle in Australia is so much better. After talking to friends and family who are in UK - so many are struggling for work, and have little money to afford to buy things.

Even if kids aren't happy - i reckon getting them the Australian citizenship is the best thing you could do. Who knows if they want to go back to UK, but 10 years later realise Australia is where they want to be? Everyone puts in hard work for their Visas, and to get citizenship would surely be worthwhile spending some time here? Then you have it forever.
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 10:46 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by Sunshine7
Can I ask, do you have children, and if so, have they handled the move well?
Just wanted to tell you that our boys (11, 9 and 5) have handled the move better than us. They settled really quickly into their school and have hardly mentioned the UK - although they do want to go back to see the olympics !

We have been here for 7 months and are on the move again. This time just a short move from Melbourne Suburbs to Geelong. Once again the boys don't seem worried by it at all - they just can't wait to be living by the Ocean.

I do honestly believe that the boys lifestyle will be better out here. It's easier for them because before long Australia will be all they've known. For us it is a little more difficult. I can't even tell you what we miss but we do still miss something? Maybe it's just familiarity and we are hoping that will come.

Ours has always been a four year plan and we promised we would stay until the end of that and then make a decision - I truly hope that our decision will be to stay and that during that time we will feel more at home.
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 10:48 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by Sunshine7
Can I ask, do you have children, and if so, have they handled the move well?
Only the canine variety... and they love it...
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 10:49 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by ittakesages
Just wanted to tell you that our boys (11, 9 and 5) have handled the move better than us. They settled really quickly into their school and have hardly mentioned the UK - although they do want to go back to see the olympics !

We have been here for 7 months and are on the move again. This time just a short move from Melbourne Suburbs to Geelong. Once again the boys don't seem worried by it at all - they just can't wait to be living by the Ocean.

I do honestly believe that the boys lifestyle will be better out here. It's easier for them because before long Australia will be all they've known. For us it is a little more difficult. I can't even tell you what we miss but we do still miss something? Maybe it's just familiarity and we are hoping that will come.

Ours has always been a four year plan and we promised we would stay until the end of that and then make a decision - I truly hope that our decision will be to stay and that during that time we will feel more at home.
It'll come... we're nearly 3 years in now and it took quite a while to feel settled...
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 10:51 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Thanks, it's lovely to hear positive stories, especially that the children are doing well. I feel that it would be such an easy thing if it were just the two of us, but so scared of hurting the children in the process. Our youngest will be fine, but I do worry about the oldest. On the plus side though, she's a confident wee thing (though very sensitive) who makes friends easily - long may that continue.
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:00 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

I would agree that the children settling quickly makes it much easier for you to settle.

We came with our 2 boys aged 14 & 15 ( at the time ) and knew nobody..We had nowhere permanent to live, no family here .. nothing!! At that time they wanted to go back for Xmas 2009 but now 14 months later they have full blown Aussie accents, a whole bunch of Aussie frineds and while they are still in contact with their old UK mates they have moved on SO much since.. Arent bothered about going back at all now!!

I love it here but it is harder than you realise.. I think the first 6 months are the easiest and just after a year I was hit by a thunderbolt of homesickness... I am glad I made the move and while I ache to go and see my parents I know I am in the place I want to live now...
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:10 pm
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Smile Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by Sunshine7
Thanks, it's lovely to hear positive stories, especially that the children are doing well. I feel that it would be such an easy thing if it were just the two of us, but so scared of hurting the children in the process. Our youngest will be fine, but I do worry about the oldest. On the plus side though, she's a confident wee thing (though very sensitive) who makes friends easily - long may that continue.
We came out 18months ago with our then 13yo son. Whilst we loved it he struggled a bit (old for his age, bit of a loner, found it difficult to find friends).

He started (another) new school after Christmas and hasn't looked back. New friends, new social clubs, and he's loving it here now.

We wouldn't consider going back under any circumstances we can envisage, but I have struggled more recently, work from home, live in "the sticks" and have found it difficult to meet people and make friends ( can't do the "Ladies wot Lunch" thing cos of work, joined the gym but still find it difficult to find the time to go regularly ) and have found it lonely - OH and DS come home after a long tiring day and want to flop, I am going stir crazy and raring to get out of the bloody house

Despite all this ...

Are we glad we moved to Australia ? YOU BET
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:42 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Originally Posted by WelshSarah
I would agree that the children settling quickly makes it much easier for you to settle.

We came with our 2 boys aged 14 & 15 ( at the time ) and knew nobody..We had nowhere permanent to live, no family here .. nothing!! At that time they wanted to go back for Xmas 2009 but now 14 months later they have full blown Aussie accents, a whole bunch of Aussie frineds and while they are still in contact with their old UK mates they have moved on SO much since.. Arent bothered about going back at all now!!

I love it here but it is harder than you realise.. I think the first 6 months are the easiest and just after a year I was hit by a thunderbolt of homesickness... I am glad I made the move and while I ache to go and see my parents I know I am in the place I want to live now...
We're in a similar position. We have been here 3 1/2 years now and love it here. We came with 3 boys then aged 12, 16 and 18, now 15, 19 and 21. All settled in at once with no regrets the eldest 2 are now at Uni, the eldest has just started his Masters and we are flying up to Qld on Friday (We live in Melbourne) for his BSc graduation, we are so proud of all of them. None of them have any intention of going back to the UK. Life is a gamble, we had never been to Australia before (hubby came for a 2 week reccie). It hasn't all been plain sailing, we've both had several jobs, schooling and Uni have cost us a fortune (we chose to send of sons private because of their ages) and building a house was quite stressful. But go back, Never. The right choice coming, definitely. We only have to look at our boys, see how happy they are and what futures they have waiting for them to know we made the right decision.
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:48 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Sorry to be the only negative view but although we don't regret coming as it was something we wanted to try we will be shortly returning to the UK. My boys (8 & 10) settled alot quicker as they had to start school etc and it's easier for kids to fit in. They don't do as many after school activities as they did in the UK everything is such a drive away. They feel the schools in the UK are much better. Although I do like it that they spend alot of time actually learning about Australia and I like it that they sing the national anthem at Parade. Wish the UK was a bit more patriotic.

We came over on a sponsored visa and as my OH's company doesn't have any new work coming in they are sending him to site to work which means he is away 3/4 days a week. Next week he is away for 6 days. We are not spending as much time together as a family. In the UK we had more family time. I think we came over at the wrong time. So we haven't been able to feel settled. Life has been quite hard compared to what we had in the UK.

Found it hard making friends as people seem to be nice one minute and ignore you the next.

So although we are going home I don't have regrets as I will be glad of the experience but I am looking forward to going home.
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:50 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Some days yes, some days no, some days I haven't got the foggiest!

The joys of being an expat!
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Old Mar 24th 2009, 11:58 pm
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Default Re: Are you glad you moved to Australia?

Yes and no, in fact everything has really been quite positive. We have a 4 year old who has had good friends in the UK and in Australia. My wife is very outgoing and has made lots of friends already. But I have inexplicable yearnings, almost panic attacks, to be back in the UK - even though most things were probably worse than Australia over there. (Not that we were running from anything, we loved the UK/Europe but returned mainly for our sons upbringing and to be closer to our families who all live in NZ now)
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