yemelade

Hi guys,

First post, wooo! I've searched the threads for all things "Weymouth" but nothing has popped up, so just hoping to hear from some lovely expats

My question: What's it like? - Especially in terms of raising children, quality of life for children, education, opportunities for children to excel in school?

More info about the question: So my partner and I are thinking about immigrating to NS in the coming years, more particularly a small town called Weymouth between Digby and Yarmouth. We've both got these grand ideas that we would move there to buy a house outright after selling the one we bought cheap (outright) and renovated in the UK, and at the prices we've seen online for houses in Weymouth we'd be looking at, 1-2 acres of land with 4 bedrooms, barn, attic, cellar etc. It just seems so fantastic compared to a 2 bed terrace in a high traffic, grey environment in the UK.

However, with it being so rural, I was just wondering what peoples thought were on how life would be like for kids? We're currently childless, but plan to start a family out there. My partner and I would have no concerns about ourselves, I'd be happy to live life more simplistically, raise chickens and a small veg patch, and partner is already fantasizing about different animal traps etc to bring home as meat but our primary concern is how will children fair?

Of course, any other information on Weymouth, moving there, what its like for us adults would also be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Yemelade

Jericho79

How old are you and what do you (both) do for jobs?

Property is rural NS is cheap for a reason- there's nowt to do, no jobs, and more and more people are moving to be closer to Halifax (from which even more people move to be closer to a proper city).

If proper rural living is what you want, NS can offer it to you. But if in reality you need to work, want a social life, want your kids to receive a rounded education, etc, you may want to have a re-think.

I would say try living rurally in the UK for a bit first and see how you adjust. Then imagine how you'd fare with no family, no friends, no job, etc. You wouldnt be the first person to make the mistake...

yemelade

Both early to mid 20s, partner is an experienced butcher and door supervisor and also has experience of being a tattooist, I am months away from completing an NHS degree in OT with experience in sales, onboard trains as a catering assistant and working in a confectionary shop as a general cashier but to be honest I wouldn't mind job wise wherever I ended up as long as we could get by.

At the moment, neither of us have great social lives. We both go out together occasionally, walk our dog daily, but usually we watch movies or just sit and talk to each other with no tv or music or anything - to the point where we are considering giving up sky TV next year as we simply do not use it. I hate living in the centre of a city, and have had our fair share of crime etc here which I doubt would be likely should we live more rurally. We also don't see our parents either, they are hours away but we do speak to them regularly by phone/skype. So I'm not too sure if the family thing would bother us, in fact I think we'd see them more if we moved abroad as they would visit us and look upon it as more of a holiday.

Partner is well up for it, I was too thinking about life similar to little house on the prairie but the education and opportunities thing for children is bothering me the most. Everyone wants more for their children right?

izzi81

Why have you chosen Weymouth? We live in NS, in the Annapolis valley which is further east from there. I've only visited as far west as Digby, and whilst it was lovely it was very quiet. A lot of Digby closes in the winter as it's so quiet. You can get rural and quiet in NS without having to venture quite so far away, although I understand the temptation of the house prices!

Best thing to do would be to come and visit and spend some time driving around to get a feel for the place. There's also a Facebook group for expats in NS which is full of helpful people, if you're on FB have a search for it

Diesel Don

Agree with the post byizzi81 there are plenty of places in Nova Scotia that can offer cheap housing compared with UK prices but to move to a place like weymouth will be quite difficult to survive. A good butcher will be able to obtain employment in or nearer some of the towns.
Have you looked into the immigration requirements yet??
I live near Windsor and that is quite rural.

Silverdragon102

Agree here rural is rural and there are many places in NS that you can achieve this with prices cheap. For instance near where I live is a small farm/hobby farm 65 acres I think it has with barns and stables and been up for sale for a while for below $150,000. House would need some renovating but easy reach to local town, 2 hours from Halifax 1 hour from NB and still rural

nikki dreaming

I agree with everything said so far.

You can easily achieve rural living in NS within 30 minutes of Halifax, you don't need to be so far remote, yes property will be more expensive than Weymouth, but will still be a good price if that is what you are looking for.

I googled Weymouth as I have never been there, fishing, fur farming and logging are the main industry's.

In relative terms to most expats in NS I live rural, I am 45 mins from downtown Halifax and that is enough for me, particularly having kids. They are 11 and 7 right now, it is working okay, however for their teenage years I foresee this becoming more of a challenge. We are happy where we are, but it isnt for everyone, people I work with think I am nuts living 70km from work, beauty is no traffic and 2 lane highway to get to work, it's fine for me.

Just wanted to point out from experience that rural in NS truly is rural and can be very clicky. Like someone said property is "really" cheap for a reason.

A visit is a must, if not 2 or 3 at different times of the year.

NS is like marmite, you love it or hate it, however very rural living in NS is not something I would personally recommend for kids and if you require an income then you need to really research and be within commute of somewhere that will provide work.

Blossom23

Where do you live now ...???

Siouxie

There are a few posts about Weymouth - we even had a member (or 2) that lived in the area.

I did a google search (as BE search isn't working terribly well)..

Here's what I found.

yemelade

Thanks everyone for the replies! Instead of going through replying to each individual message, here's a combined reply :P

Why have you chosen Weymouth? - Thanks for your reply Izzi81, and I've also joined the fb group! We liked the look of weymouth because it appears to be un-commercialised i.e. there's no tesco express, sainsburys etc along every street, and there is forests, lakes, and lovely scenery on your door step and minutes away from small shops to get things from. Yeh it's ages away from Halifax, but we're used to 2.5 hour bus journeys to my home town every Christmas etc so it doesn't feel all that different time wise. Obviously though like you say a visit would definitely be necessary to test our ideas and ensure Weymouth is what we really want!

Have you looked into the immigration requirements yet?
Hi Diesel Don thanks for your reply. Yep we've looked at the skilled worker visa and I've done the online test, I would qualify for this visa after I've got my degree. But we've also looked at the business visa, as thinking about opening a small butcher/processing unit with partner over there but we'd have to find the perfect location in order to be successful. Q, does anyone know if we went to Canada on the skilled worker visa if it would involve me needing to have a job offer in OT or working as an OT within a certain time frame? I know there is a test etc and new qualification I'd need to get in Canada before practising as an OT but just so we know

Also thanks to NikkiDreaming, you are so right & that's exactly what we're doing, I've told my partner if I have doubts about anything before we put an appliction in, we won't apply as I want to be very certain that everything will work out. (although from what I've read, many people do that and then nothing works out as planned anyway) :P

Where do you live now? Hi Blossom23, we live in Middlesbrough but both originally from Newcastle. We live in a high traffic area nearby drug dealers and across the street from a whore house. We live next to a park where 9 year old children pee as they are walking, and their parent laugh at them as they do it and encourage them to do so. We live in an area where I was attacked one night whilst walking my dog by a man however thanks to my dog nothing too serious happened. Its a god awful place, and we can't wait to move away from it all!!! Even when we lived in Newcastle, although less crime happened, still saw children swearing, spitting, disrespecting people and I know this is down to parenting too but I think if we raised kids away from it all they'd stand a better chance of life! :P So anywhere is better than where we are I suppose

Thanks for the link Siouxie, never thought of google! I searched on here but nothing popped up so thanks for that

Thanks everyone, definitely some room for thought. xx

christmasoompa

You might as well forget all of that I'm afraid! You wouldn't have qualified after your degree anyway (as you'd have to have worked as an OT for a year full-time as well), but the whole Skilled Worker (and other visa categories) system is changing from January onwards. So by the time you come to apply it'll be completely different, so research it nearer the time.

Where you live sounds bloody awful. Can you not move somewhere more rural in the UK for now? I know you probably have to be close to your uni, but couldn't you move further out of Middlesborough and commute in? As a fellow countryside/chicken/veggie patch lover, I just can't imagine having to live somewhere like you do!

Good luck!

Blossom23

OMG ... you poor thing ... no wonder you're considering a complete change.. I would too. Sounds like anything would be better than where you live right now.

We came over 24 years ago on a visa to start a business. First application to landing was 6 months .. seriously.. it all happened so quickly we really had no time to second guess ourselves... but at the end of the day I don't regret it one bit.... It was challenging at times but with the right mindset you work through it.

However as it was such a long time ago, I'm a bit out of touch with today's requirements and can't offer you much assistance with the best way to approach your application. However there's a wealth of expertise on this site so I hope that you use it and I sincerely wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours...

Jericho79

Maybe I'm stating the obvious here, but I wouldn't underestimate how difficult it is to get licensed/approved/certified/etc to work with food in Canada, and especially NS.
I have friends who are trying to run a hobby farm about an hour from Weymouth, and they are constantly fighting with the inspection/standards people, red tape, bureaucracy, etc. There are quotas, etc, and it's very much geared towards favouring big business as opposed to small independents.

Also, as others will attest, life in NS depends greatly on who you know (not what you know). People, especially rural, stick to what/who they know, and it's not easy to break that inner circle.
Personally, I would love to have more butchers in Canada, but they are very much a niche market here. Generally, Canadians are quite happy getting their meat from the supermarket/Costco and there doesn't appear to be much demand for butchery. When you combine limited demand with a very small population, it should give you cause for concern.

Sorry if this sounds like I'm putting a downer on your dreams- that's not my intention. But as I referenced in this and other threads about NS, I've seen too many people arrive with rose tinted glasses and get a quick and unhappy reality check. Immigration is very expensive- not just the process itself, but getting established once you're here etc. Really make sure you do your homework is basically what I'm saying. Good luck.

Diesel Don

I think that you need to visit Canada or Nova Scotia if that is where you want to live. Things are different here. You need to come and have a visit it will also help on the Visa application if you know what you are letting yourself in for.
Real butcher shops hardly exist outside of city's. Most meat shops are in the local supermarkets. Yo say you have a 2.5 hour bus journey to make to the town, well here you will be lucky to have a bus route. Travelling to work in the summer is a delight with the local wildlife abounding and the eagles and Ospreys flying about. But come winter it is a different story when it is -20. All of these things you will have to consider.
You will not have 14 years old kids drunk on cider staggering around here you have to be 19 and be able to prove it with ID before you will be served with drink or cigarettes. Rowdy teenagers are arrested and taken away in handcuffs by the RCMP. You can all-ways tell the English visitors or newcomers to Canada by the way the women hod on the handbags in case they get snatched. Compared with Britain we have next to no crime here.
It is a wonderful place to live but you must do your homework on what you can do for a living and where you must live to be able to do it. Come and have a look or contact me on Skype to progress further.

Moses2013

I would be interested why even Canada? You mentioned that you live in a horrible area, but there are so many places that have what you're looking for in Europe (no Visa required).