Experiences of moving with Children
 

Hi all 😊
We are a family of 3, mum dad and 9 year old daughter. Looking at options and considering Canada.
Our main concern is her being able to settle in and make friends. Do you have experience of moving children to Canada? Did they settle well? Do they have better opportunities and a better life in Canada? What is school like? Do you find it better than UK for them?
where did you move? We don’t like city life, we like the outdoors, walks, scenery etc but commutable to work.
Lots and lots to look at but as I say out main hurdle is moving little one as if she didn’t make friends or settle I would feel so guilty.

Re: Experiences of moving with Children
 

I suggest you’re looking at this the wrong way round.
I accept your daughter settling in is a concern for you but your initial investigations should centre on your eligibility to move. It can be an uncertain and expensive process to obtain the necessary visas to move to Canada - once you have that, then you can focus on the exact area you think will be most suitable for you as a family. Depending on where you end up, Canada or somewhere else, it may be a better environment than the UK - or not. Your daughter may settle in well, or she may have issues. It’s impossible to say how it will work out for her, and you. When you get to that stage, you’ll be there to help and support her.
The only thing you can know for certain is that the school system is different. I would say generally less pressure on the kids, in that progress is measured by gaining credits each year, rather than a build up to GCSEs and A Levels. But that’s something you can research.
Many families move to Canada, or another country, every day/month/year and find ways that it works for them. Children are surprisingly adaptable and usually settle in better than adults.
Do some detailed research into what and how you can proceed, and share your aspirations with her at the appropriate time so she can share your ambition to move, if you decide that’s the way forward.
Good luck!

Re: Experiences of moving with Children
 

I appreciate what information you're trying to find, and why, but there are are almost as many different experiences as there are families that move to another country.

Even just on BE there is a full range of experiences reported from "our child(ren) settled quickly and easily" to "our child(ren) never settled, struggled at school dropped out and ...." (there has been a very small minority of truly tragic cases reported, :( with the best outcome being "my child returned to the UK as soon as he/ she was old enough to do so). So it is impossible for us to predict how your children may fare. That said, at the age of nine, I think yoiur daughter is young enough to make a good transition - it is often teenagers, that have already established friendships and are further into their educational journey, that are more likely to stuggle to settle, than younger children.

Some factors are [1] personal to you and your daughter, her own personality and how she deals with a new environment, some are [2] how you and your spouse react to the upheaval of the move - you may unintentionally communicate your own stress and uncertainties, for example related to work and family budget, to your daughter, and some are [3] random, such as whether your daughter happens to make good friends near your home and/or at school.

One thing I would point out is that "liking the outdoors" may be very different in Canada from what you are used to in the UK. Hiking on a marked public footpath in UK, even if in somewhere such as the moors of Devon, in the mountains of north Wales, or the Pennines, is nothing like the wildernesses of North America, partly because of the remoteness and possible isolation from "civilization", making the liklihood and consequences of getting lost far more concerning, partly because of the extremes of weather, and partly because the chances of you being attacked and eaten by wild animals in the UK is approximately zero, whereas that is not the case in North America. :eek: