Hi,
I am living with my husband and two kids aged 7 and 2 in Frankfurt, Germany. I am from the banking industry and my husband is in the IT. We are very confused whether to move to Canada or UK especially in Canada the vacation period is very small, the cold weather and the distance is putting off. The main reason for us to move is better education for our kids and better carreer and better life ofcourse.

Any advise on this issue would be appreciated.

I think its safe to confirm that yes, its cold some of the time, that vacation is usually only 2 or 3 weeks, and that its a big country several thousand miles from Europe.

Despite all that I have no great desire to return to the UK (the "better life" part?). Having said that I dont know that many people come to Canada for career development...the opposite seems to be quite common.

So what was your question?

Sounds to me like you wanna be heading to London town.

Lots of holidays, lots of banking and IT jobs and only a hop skip and a jump away from Frankfurt. Weather might even be a little warmer.

You arent serious about a better education in UK than Germany are you??
I'm not sure Canada is the place to go either.

Better career = UK
Closer to home = UK
More vacation time = UK
Cold winters = Depends on where you live. For example Vancouver is warmer than the UK during the winter, Montreal is much colder.

Better education in Canada than Frankfurt??? Having just been back to the UK to arrange a few things, I was devastated to see how far behind my kids are and how poorly their education at school compares to the four schools I looked at back home. Having said that, I have German friends whose kids are way ahead of their Uk counterparts. I guess it will depend on what is important to you for your own children.

Strikes me it would better to move to UK. You will be nearer to Germany, winters will be much warmer than most of Canada and cost of food etc, as I understand it is cheaper than Canada.

I am sick of Ontario winters and would opt to live in UK for a few winter months,though Jan and Feb can be a bit miserable, but rest of the year is not too bad.

Also I keep reading on these threads how folks have a hard time find work, it seems it's easier in UK to find work.

For a German, your English is quite good. Not sticking a capital letter on every noun is something that must take some practice. Not sticking "the" in front of every noun is another tricky one but you managed to sort it out during the first paragraph.

I'm not at all sure she is German. If she is, then it's hard to believe that she believes the education system in Frankfurt is inferior to either alternative. On the other hand if she's from elsewhere she might well be put off by the rigidity and formality in German schools, as I was when I lived there.

Although my whole nuclear family enjoyed our lives in Germany (we had 2 kids 2 and 4 when we went and we stayed for 7+ years), neither the OH or myself wanted to face the prospect of having our kids get too deeply into the (very hierarchical) German school system. Grundschule (K- 4th grade) was just about OK, but the Gymnasium was more than a tad daunting. This was one strong reason for us to return to Canada at the time we did.

There's no doubt at all that the kids (at least those who make it to Gymnasium) are academically way ahead of Canadian High School grads when they (if they) go on to uni., but there is IMHO a psychological penalty involved.

We decided (and perhaps the OP feels the same way), that we'd rather be responsible for the production of two well adjusted young Canadianized people, rather than two well educated young Germanized ones.

Well I just wanted to know how would you compare the life of UK and Canada. Well I did get some replies saying that the education in Canada is not so good but how about the job is it easy to get a job in Finance and IT. Especially we are trying to move to Toronto(if we move)

I would go to the UK if I were you..... in fact i have a house you might like ;-)

You are right I dont like the system of segregating the kids. The life in Germany is very good otherwise but the career growth is also not so good.

Having lived in Germany for nearly four years due to husband's job I would say Germany rather than UK however now that we have been back in England for three years I would say Canada rather than the other two bearing in mind never lived in Canada just visited a few times for four weeks at a time. Think amount of holidays in Canada is a downside(hubby gets 6 weeks now) but something you have to get over.

Ha ha. Try having 10 days a year yourself then 'get over' it. Granted that bank holidays are extra (but then again they are too in Scotland)

No seriously. Holidays are such a bone of contention where I work that the management even tacitly encourage the workers to take their 18 days a year sickness benefits to make up the time. Not that much encouragement is needed.

Hubby's 6 wks don't include the bank hols they are extra, we know it's going to be a shock to the system but we have had a few of those to deal with due to him being in the Armed Forces, Think if I can cope with him going away 3 days after his second daughter was born as well as having a 19 mth old to look after I can cope with that but only time will tell.