dbd33

Hey, if it just gets you a better part time job while in law school, that's something worth having.

iaink

Fair point, but please, dont ever suggest any of my offspring might become lawyers again... you can push a man too far!


I suppose she could be the heroic crusaiding human rights type lawyer though, but then her living in poverty doesnt really appeal either....

Alan2005

When I read that what I see is "if you've got more cash here, you can have a better life here" which is such a statement of the obvious that it can't be what you really meant.

iaink

I read it more as "Its possible to make more money here (in my field), therefore we can have a better life"

I do think kids activities here are generally cheaper too FWIW.

Tangram

Snow.

dbd33

Yep, that's the banality of it. I don't see that there's anything better for children in one place or the other that isn't specific to the family's circumstances.

pinkkristen

I wouldn't advise moving ONLY for the kids, do it because you as a family truly believe that Canada will offer you what you want. It is such a different country to the UK - Pos and negs. You as parents need to be happy and settled too.
We came over thinking it is a better lifestlye for the kids. I think we jumped on the bandwagon as Britain being a place where kids have no future etc etc!
In reality, we came from a lovley yorkshire village with a fantastic school and lots of good friends. We have now jumped into city suburbia with not much character or charm and a school that isn't half as good as her last one.



We hope to move back in a year, which will make it 2 years here - had an adventure, but now we know where we want to be for the rest of our lives.

For keeping in touch with friends/family skype is a great invention and has def helped with being able to see people, just get a bit chaotic when you have 3 noisy kids trying to hog the screen!!!

el_richo

I wonder how many parents confuse moving "for the kids" and "moving for/from themselves"?

Because reading the small number of replies on this, it seems for the bigger picture of a child's life and career, Canada can offer no more than the UK?

Fair enough, i can understand a parent living in the third world wanting to move for the benefit of their child but from the UK to Canada, there must be another more significant driver for the parents.

But like i said, i have no kids so don't have the parental experience other than my niece and nephews who, from the looks of things, have a great life, education, and opportunities in the UK.

JonboyE

True.

A blank canvas on which to build their life?

So much depends on where you live in the UK you live and how much money you have.

Oink

I read this ad nauseam. It seems to me that this appears to be an easy option. Sod retraining or trying something new in the UK, lets bugger off to somewhere else where we can try our luck and leave our troubles behind, but use our children to justify the move. Problem is with this approach, is most of the time the problems come with you.

pinkkristen

I agree, we came primarily for "the kids future" and don't get me wrong, there is a huge amount out here for kids to do, but we are not happy here and i believe we need to have an enjoyable life too (if nothing else so we can raise our kids in a positive household).
I know we could stick it out for another year/two/three, but i honestly believe it won't change how we feel. By then though, it would be much harder to move the kids back.

So, yes i think the reason for moving away from home has to be a lot more than just being better for the kids.
You can move within the UK from inner city to a village setting if its a better lifestly for the kids that is wanted.
Stupidly, we didn't need to do that as where we came from was a great place - now we have come to appreciate it!!

iaink

Its a question of money I think, not many have the income to go from a nasty inner city area to a nice leafy village and still have a job nearby. If you are moving from a posh inner city pad thats probably not the case, but then a healthy income makes most places seem better.

Certainly in the past there was a temptation to cash in on UK property equity and buy bigger in Canada and start afresh, but the housing market in the UK is not what it was and the exchange rate doesnt look so good now.

You could be raising your kids in a utopian paradise, but if the parents are unhappy then the kids will not thrive. I think though that once people start to think about trying a new country its very hard to put that genie back in the bottle. Canadas OK though, I like it here obviously, but then I never had a problem in the UK, other than property was so expensive, and its got no cheaper since then. Expensive property is true in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary etc too though. I still consider myself lucky to end up in a cheaper area but with access to a job that pays the bills.

JonboyE

I don't think it is stupid. I think experiencing something new, and learning from that experience what is important to you is a very rational, as well as valuable, thing to do.

JonboyE

Very true. For a normal family to move from a grim northern town to a family home in the sort of crime free areas with good schools that do exist in the UK is almost impossible. The difference in property prices makes it so.

A move to Canada might actually be the cheaper option. Plus, you get the blank canvas to build your new life.

Paul_Shepherd

Perfectly put JonboyE!!

I have no kids or wife.....it just hasnt happened so far for me, all my friends and family had moved on to their next phase, I felt life was passing me by...so I was one that bought into that blank canvas....life is too short to spned in one place....in my circumstances that is....many people of course are quite happy to do that - and I can also perfectly understand that, if you have all the building blocks there!