Well, it looks like we are finally going to get to BC! Have been hanging around here for a while now getting information.

I work in healthcare, and have been offered a job in Northeastern BC in an area very attractive to us. I am being sponsored for a work permit, and if all goes well, we will be over in october/november. Just got to do the HRDC and then Embassy...

We have 3 small children, so are dreading trying to get them over there!

Cheers
Matt

hi

why are you dreading bringing kids over here? is it the travelling or once you get here?

The eldest won't be a problem, but a 18 month old and a 4 year old on a plane for 10 hours? Thinking of getting some sedation

my first out of europe flying experience was 2 years ago with 2 kids on my own. my eldest was 6 and my youngest was just 4. i went to the doctors just before i went and mentioned i was going and not looking forward to the flying. i was told to give them piriton. its an anti histamine for kids and is quite safe to give them the full dosage suitable for their age. im not too sure about the 18 month old but im sure theres something you can give them. once you get here you can get some stuff called gravol which knocks the spots off of piriton so you can sleep flying back. i was worried about giving it to them unnecessarily but i was reminded it was given to kids for travel sickness so its fine.

ive flown with the 2 kids now 6 times and plenty more to go. just before we flew here for good this year someone bought us some magnetic games from early learning centre. an absolute godsend i can tell you!! my ex's mother bought them a book on cd each so they plugged in their headphones and listened to that a lot. my now 8 year old loves music so i put together some cds for her. my son has a gameboy which helped. i know not everyone has these and they are kind of expensive but if you can look on ebay and get a cheaper one. it keeps him quiet in the car now.

we have a 24 hour drive to ontario in 7 weeks and it will be non stop with the 2 kids in the back. it will be treated exactly the same as a plane. gravol, cds, books, drawing stuff (not felt tips as i did the first year i flew,......BIG mistake!!!!), magnetic games and gameboy. another good thing though i havent done it myself yet is a laptop if you have one. the movies are never suitable for kids on planes. we're plugging in the laptop in the car and putting dvds on for them on our trip. they make a good threat to take away if they misbehave!!!

good luck and dont worry you'll see loads of people with young familys on the plane.

Shouldn’t be a problem we took are youngest twice to Florida and once to California before he was 3 and he was great no problems at all see if you can seats near the bulkhead some air lines have cots

Thanks for the replies, lots of useful advice.

We are in the process of looking to buy a house before we move, we have seen a few nice ones. They cost nothing compared to the UK!

Has anyone bought whilst over here, and if so are there any hints or tips to bear in mind?

Many thanks

i kind of did. we found a house on my last fact finding trip over before i moved for good. put an offer in, did all the paperwork etc whilst i came back to the uk. the reason i say kind of bought a house is that my husband was in canada so its not as though we left the lawyers and realtor to it and went back to the uk. saying that though he didnt have to do much and all the signing i had to do was done by fax so it was pretty straight forward. i think ive said before on here, give me buying in canada anyday!!!!

Sedation - for you or for them!!

With luck the 18mth old will sleep... I was recommended periton (the anti histamine liquid) but phew, never needed it (mind you - only had the one!).

Which town in Northern BC?

Clare

Sedation for all of us I think!

Dawson Creek, near the border with Alberta.

recently did a 3 day trip to van with a our 1 year old son he slept 5 of the 9.5 hrs on way out and six on way back tooks lots of toys etc we were dreading it because it was such a short trip but it was fine the guy sat behind was great kept pulling faces and hiding his face which kept him happy for hours it was a fine trip we were calm so he was too.
good luck with your trip

Stavex, you said you were in Healthcare and had been offered a job. If you don't mind me asking, what aspect of healthcare are you involved in?
My partner is an Occupational Therapist and we haven't bothered to pre-apply for jobs because (having read this site) we were under the assumpition that you had to re-study/re-qualify for most occupations.

Hi

Just out of interest, have you been to Dawson Creek?

JJ

We gave our daughter who was 2 at the time benedryl which was recommended by our doctor for the 10 hour flight back to England.

We gave it about an hour before we got on the plane and it had the opposite effect causing here to run around in circles with so much energy that we thought "crap", where in for a bad one here.

So we took off from vancouver and she was fine to begin with, didnt like the seat belt too much but was ok. Then we landed in Calgary and descent hurt her ears a little, so that kind of upset her a little.

Then the people got on at calgary and we had to wait on the runwayfor about 15 mins. with the seatbelt on, and it was during that time that she had her meltdown. The plane was completely quite except for our daughter screaming to get the seatbelt off. I laugh now, but wanted to hide under the seat at the time.


So on the way back from the Uk we gave her Calpol which was recommended by friends and that had the same effect as the benedryl and we thought "crap" again.

Although this time she was fine taking off and landing. So it was quite an adventure for all of us, with only one 15 minute episode that made me want to cut my wrists. The rest was just a learning experience.

it's true, some anti histamines can have an opposite effect. youre best off trying it out first at home and see what happens.