It's funny how many expats come to Canada "for the kids", only to have them head for the US -- or in our case, the UK -- as soon university looms. Really, why did we even bother?

The US appears to have a lot to offer educationally, still we have not dismissed offers from Canada yet. We see

The OP has kids, they are not happy (neither the OP nor their kids by the sound of it). My comments were cast in that direction.

I cant imagine any parent who would swap their own happiness and that of their kids for a large house plus toys. Maybe Im wrong...

I wouldnt, thank god my two are happy here

Canada is not for everyone.

Some will like it, some just live here and don't even think of anywhere else, others cant stand the place and long for a return to the UK.

At least they gave it a try, no what ifs in the future. Maybe knowing life is not for the OP away from the UK will make their return more successful.

Reading between the lines I think they think it would be a lot better here if they could find a decent job and have some extra money to spend on achieving the lifestyle they signed up for, and maybe they are not prepared to go back to the UK without having really lived the life that a second income might make possible here...

Sometimes you have to just make the best of it for a while and wait for things to fall in place. Knowing how long to give it before opting for plan B is the hard thing, especially with kids not settling (although Im sure a jet ski and the like would help the kids feel better about the place...)

On the kids front, I think this is very fickle, one of my nieces who had never really lived in the UK (except as a baby) got it into her head from visiting my mom that she loved the UK and wanted to live there, blah blah and when she did and reality set in she absolutely loathed it because she keeps saying all the kids in school are really rude and nasty and go on about celebrities she thinks are total crap, etc. And now she's really depressed and spends all her time trying to learn to play the piano.

I think any sort of move as a teenager is going to rock the boat, it's just par for the course really.

LOL you made me laugh..yes that is the expression I had for a long time. He is in banking, and found it really difficult getting a job, but you know I believe in looking forward and not looking back. At a point, he gave in looking...I continued and got him the interview that he now has the job for.

I live in the US now but my oldest daughter has gone back to Canada to attend university. It's the most cost effective option. She's a Canadian citizen and so qualifies for domestic tuition fees (which are really low) - and Canadian universities are highly regarded. The cost of attending university in the UK and US has skyrocketed in comparison to Canada.

Yeah - I think this is a really difficult age to move. There are always exceptions but, in general, I think younger kids adapt much more easily.

Funny, my wifes cousin went to the UK (Leeds) because it's cheaper and offers her much better experiences according to her. She loves it.

I love how Canadians I know complain about the huge cost of education in Canada. Same goes for those in the UK.

Yeah - they should try the US on for size! My daughter attends Western in London, Ontario for quite a bit less than it would have cost her even "in state" at the University of Maryland. If you add in the extra cost of living in Canada, higher sales tax and the fact we travel up and down quite a bit, it probably evens out. However, she never really wanted to attend uni in Maryland anyway so a much better comparison is the massive savings we're enjoying over an "out of state" uni in the US.

And I have no idea what Quebec students were protesting about. They pay the lowest tuition fees in Canada.

I've seen movies showing life in American universities and the shenanigans they get up to. If it were my daughter, I'd send her up to Canada too

Money isn't the issue. I think that she just wants to exercise the options afforded her by having dual-nationality -- plus she feels that Canada is pretty dull compared with the UK.

My wifes cousin is doing Europe on the cheap this summer. Her Canadian friends are aparently very jealous while she spreads word via farcebook of her very affordable galavanting around Paris, Nice, Florence, Munich, Amsterdam, and probably other places students in Europe pop off to these days.

Her best friend is back home in Cape Breton and bored as **** aparently.