Myself and my husband were very upset to see the thread from Liz about our family returning to the uk. We would like to say that we have friends and family in Regina and have not found that a problem. As for lots of young mums in Regina well as an older woman not in my situation would not know nearly all the mums work full time in Regina and house wives dont exist. I have met plenty of mums who are friendly and want to talk but they are on maternity leave and go back to work with in a year. As for joining church groups, well these don't exist in Regina as far as I have found, except for one that I went to that wanted to convert you to be a jehova which I thought was a bit extreme just to make friends!! Also if regina is such a great place why does everyone you meet here ask why on earth did you come to Regina. My husband had lived here before as a child for 7years so that is why we came here and the fact we already had friends and family here.
Yes we have missed friends and family and things that you cannot get here but if we went home for these reasons it would be a very silly thing to do. I am actually pregnant again hence the quick return home (we have actually been here 6 months not 3 as previously mentioned by Liz), otherwise we may have lasted longer. The feelings we have are that in Regina there is not enough to warrant taking our young children (1 and 2) away from their family and we have learnt that material things in life don't bring happiness.
It has cost us a lot financially coming here and we actually came from Bournemouth in England and as anyone that knows bournemouth would know it is a hard place to beat. It has been a great experience and we have learnt a lot about ourselves and life. We have no regrets at all and would do the same over again (except sell our house in the UK maybe).
We did commit to the canadian experience 100%. We bought a house, bought cars, my husband had a job from the word go so we were very lucky. If all this can't make you happy why waste your life in a country your not happy in for the fear someone may say stupid comments like Liz did. It was a very big decision for us to go home but we feel it is the right one for us.
I am very pleased that so many people had strong feelings about what liz had typed and feel very let down that she felt she could type such a strong and offending message without knowing us or the facts first. Perhaps future messages should be of peoples own experiences only without reference to others.
So we will back in sunny bournemouth as soon as we sell our house with friends and family who love us and our children and having had the best experience ever.

I didnt realize you posted on this board or else I wouldnt have posted myself. Sorry about that but I still think you should have given it a longer chance. It seems such a big waste of money to me to not stay a year. I am not saying that you should have stayed for ever - just that you should have committed to staying for a year and seeing if you could find some friends. Otherwise the expense was too big. When you spend all the money it costs to sell a house and possessions in England and then sell all the stuff you bought here - I would think that a year's investment would be better than six months.

I also think that there are probably better places to come than Regina. If I didn't have family here - I wouldn't be here either. Some people love the winters - I don't - but there are lots of other places where you could try and maybe recoup some of the investment that you have in the project.

Again - sorry about posting. I really would not have posted if I realized that you came on this board. But having said that - I still stand by what I said.

Its too much money for so short a trip.

I've read this twice now, but I'm still a bit confused (not enough coffee yet this morning) Are you returning to the UK only because you miss family / friends and dont want your kids to grow up there? I guess I'm missing your point somehow.

Good Luck

Iain


PS, If Stirling (Ont) with a pop of 4500 has (at least) 4 church social groups, plus the Lions, Shriners, Lionesses, and numerous other service and social clubs as well as volunteer organisations, I am sure there is more in Regina than just the Jehovas Witnesses!

Liz that's your personal opinion which of course you are entitled too. As explained we have made the decision to go now not after a year as the baby will be here by then and if that baby has dual citizenship it would only be fair to stay 3yrs and give it to our other children too. That is why we are leaving so quick as we dont want to commit to 3yrs. We were worried about what people would say such as your comments and were told if people think that then they're not worth knowing - guess this is true.
The expense has been worth it for the experiences we have gained and don't worry about that.
As for making friends, we have friends and family already in Regina and I have also made new friends and gone out and met people so do not feel you have the right to judge us on that. Perhaps it would be an idea to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Not the first and not the last time there'll be ill-informed judgemental comments on these boards like that, I'm afraid. That's the nature of the internet forum beast. Can understand your annoyance though!

Sorry to hear things didn't work out for you over there but glad things are going in the right direction for you now. I can only agree about Bournemouth, we've been here for the last few years and it's a fantastic place, by and large. We're still aiming to move to Vancouver, but will be retaining the property here if at all able!

Cheers and all the best on your return,

Iain (in Bournemouth)

I deleted my original post so nobody else can read it - although the rest of the stuff is still there obviously.

My main reason for posting was not to be judgmental or have a dig at you or anything like that - it didnt really matter if the facts were correct either. I figured that there were people who were considering coming to Canada and it might give them pause for thought - they might spend a whole load of money all for nothing.

I thought they might sit back and consider whether things were perhaps better where they were and they should stay where they were.

The days where jobs were plentiful here seem to have long gone - so people need to consider that - and maybe your experience with Regina is not an isolated one - perhaps other people feel like that too and so its worth considering all this and a person sitting at home considering emigrating should think about all this.

I'm not having a go here, but that is really not a very good reason! Why would the kids even care about the difference? Really if the kids want to come back to canada when they grow up, then let them use the PR process like the rest of us. Their younger canadian sibling could probably sponsor them anyway, so it really is a non issue in my opinion. After your negative experience, how likely are the kids to want to live in canada later on anyway?

I still dont see this as a reason on its own to leave, there must be some underlying reason you dont want to stay?

None of my business really, but I have to agree with Liz that 6 months is at least 6 months too soon to think about leaving, and probably 18 months too soon. If you dont mind me asking, why did you decide to leave the UK and come to canada in the first place? I doubt the UK has changed all that much while you were away.

Iain

I really dont see why we have to justify our decision on this forum. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and as no one on this forum knows us personally i dont feel you can judge us on ours. My first message was long enough and there are other reasons to us going home but do not have time to type our every thought and feeling. Everyone is different and perhaps if you had had the same feelings we had after 6months you would not be questioning our decision. There are others on the returning to the UK forum who have had just as short a spell overseas so do not feel we are out of the norm.
What we decide is best for our children is our choice and everyone has different parenting ideas. We feel the children are a big part of our decision and had to cover every eventuality in our decision. Granted the children may not want to come back to canada but it would not be because of our experience as it has not been negative in fact it has been the best learning on life i have had. One situation we were faced with is if the child born here wanted to come back to live. The child born here under current rules could only sponsor one sibling to come and live and what if the other could not get through on points. And who knows what the system could be like by the time theyre old enough to know what they want. We did not want to have the weight of being able to split up brothers and sisters hence the reason we felt we would have to stay for 3yrs if this child was born here. Some of you may not agree with this and thats fine but that is a rational thinking behind our early exit.

Just my two cents but....

"6 months is at least 6 months too soon to think about leaving, and probably 18 months too soon"

Whilst I do respect the opinions of everyone on this thread and you might represent the rationale answer.

I think it's very difficult to say when enough is enough for anyone but yourself.

Whilst I have been here 18 months I think one thing I learnt is everyone has a different immigration experience and with bad luck or factors outside our control maybe anyone of us might have had enough after 6 months or 3 months or whenever.

Like I say it's all about opinions so just though I would toss mine in

gilly1,

Fair play on returning to England - I envy you - Bournemouth is a fantastic town with lots to offer for kids and grown ups alike. I doubt your kids will complain with those nice sandy beaches and scenic countryside. Dorset is one of my favourite places, probably because I was born there!

You have to do what you have to do. Sometimes people just decide that xyz place is better than abc - no more justification is needed.

Congrats on the new kid, and have fun in B'mouth.

Like I said, I am not trying to have a go here, but the more prospective immigrants know about the down side, the better they will be equiped to deal with them.

We all come here to offer or get an insight into the real experience of immigrating, rather than the rose tinted view on offer from the government. Your OP just says you are leaving before the baby is born, and you have your reasons for wanting to do that, but I still have no idea why you are leaving.

You are right, no-one else knows your feelings after 6 months and I bet they are pretty complex, nothing is ever black and white, but you say "perhaps if you had had the same feelings we had after 6months you would not be questioning our decision" Well my point is that many of us here were less than thrilled by the experience after six months, so perhaps we did have the same feelings, but after making it through the hardest part of homesickness etc we are really glad we stayed that bit longer...of course if you dont want to share that is your prerogative, but there is a good bunch of expats and future expats here who would be interested in your experience and maybe some do have common experiences with yours. Anyway, I'm not going to beat a dead horse, so I will wish you all the best and leave it at that.

Iain

Hope you get your house sold soon and have a great time back in sunny Bournemouth. I agree that it is a hard place to beat - we have a small one bed bungalow there that we are renting out just in case we want to go back!

I'm glad you have had a good learning experience. Tom and I were chatting the other day saying that if we do go back, we will have gained so much in experience even if we lose out financially a bit, it will have been worth it. At least you won't be wondering 'what if?'

Jeez, has everyone lived in Bournemouth at some point?

Cheers, Iain

You don't need to justify yourselves but be prepared for criticism when you post your views on a forum because thats the nature of the beast. I know it's a bit unfortunate in your case because you didn't start this in the first place and I can understand why you felt the need to come on and reply.

Most people (me included) who are either planning to move to Canada or have been there sometime may question your decision to move back and it will promote discussion on both sides but in the end it's nothing to do with us. Your decisions are all about you and what you want and desire.

Not yet, but dont we all retire there? (Unless youre a scouser in which case Southport is where you go to die)