Strawberry

No. I just think they might be................

bombards

so why you moving to Canada?

Kaye5

Why?! Would like your comments - we may (possibly) be heading to HRM, so would be very relevant to us - thanks!

Joe_Sleepy

As with all of these "Is Canada _________..?.." type threads it is almost solely contingent on where you live in the U.K. plus where you plan on moving to in Canada.

I was born & raised in South London/North Kent, I have seen an absolutely genuine collapse in the moral fabric of society in my home town & surrounding areas. Not a fear of crime or an unhealthy obsession with scaremongering journalism but gangs of young kids (12 & up) roaming the streets attacking people, smashing things & waging wars amongst themselves.

I was in my local library on a Saturday afternoon, with my two daughters, returning the last of their library books before we left to move here. A gang of approximately fifteen "youths" rushed in screaming & swearing & proceeded to smash the place up. In under a minute they had trashed the place, thrown or pushed two people to the ground & left, one of the librarians told me it was a regular occurrence. This may not happen in other parts of the U.K. & it may be common in other parts of Canada but it would absolutely not happen here.

There is trouble here but you would have to go looking for it as it is highly unlikely to find you. It is like my part of the U.K. 40 years ago. That means there is more prejudice in some quarters & that new ideas are treated with suspicion but there is also an innocence that britain lost at some point.

My daughters never went for sleepovers at friends houses, there were unable to play outside unless in our back garden (traffic/other aggressive kids) & were routinely bullied & threatened at school by other "less fortunate" kids, I would add that we are not wealthy but my instance on them eating a healthy packed lunch (fruit, veg no crisps) made them targets at one point.

Here we have 2 acres they play in, there is zero bullying at their school, the kids show off about how cheaply they managed to buy clothes & trainers, & individuality is prized. They walk to each others' houses, swim in the ponds, ski in the snow, ride their bikes on the practically empty roads & basically enjoy the same kind of childhood I enjoyed (minus the occasional random beating from local bullies)..

The other half & me have holes in our underwear but my daughters have never been happier than they are now & that's despite having to leave their friends in the U.K., their grandparents & their old way of life. I won't lie, it's been hard on us but when we look at the kids it is obvious that we did the right thing. My 12 year old told me the other day that she would rather work in a supermarket here that have a "good" job back in England (I told her that was great but maybe she should aim a little higher.. ha ha ..).

There are things about Nova Scotia that will always jar a little with me & other things I no longer even notice but the girls are young enough that they already accept life here as "normal" & with my hand on my heart they are happier.

If you & your kids already have this in the U.K. it may not be worth the wrench to you but if you haven't then moving out here is a very valid option.. It's a judgment call I suppose.. Feel free to PM me if you'd like..

dbd33

Can't argue with that. You'd have to be coming from some very rough place in the UK to make Rexdale (NW Toronto) better:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crim...pite-big-busts

bombards

My sentiments exactly - I have said the same thing ever since we arrived in Canada - my girls have the "safe and uncomplicated life I had as a child 40 years ago"

We had a great life in England and believe me it was hard to give up good careers - we came here because of OH work, an opportunity, a chance to do something different. We took a hugh gamble, BUT the current life we lead, I can honestly say that my girls ARE better off, safer, doing age appropriate things unlike their peers back home. This is MY opinion and I have experienced both lifestyles and see the comparisons from both sides of the pond.

Everyone on this forum hopes that life will be better in Canada - otherwise why are you thinking of moving???????

It's not easy, many ex-pats have faced hard times whether emotional, financial or medical - we have But we are still here and if my life fell apart tomorrow - I would still stay in Canada because as a family , we ARE better and this is home!!!!!

lmartin999

Work, family reasons, chance to live somewhere different.

britsnake

It is true that there are some really nice beautiful places to live in England, but the availability of jobs and pay is much worse.

I have friends who own holiday homes in these areas and many who have retired in one of these areas.

I love my freedom, and some of my friends has experienced pressure from the locals to conform and have often felt like outsiders.

I did come close once to moving to one of these areas. I had a good job offer which would have meant moving to the country, but when I spoke to my wife, she said that I would be moving on my own.

Selling her on Canada was much easier. With promised of cheap holidays in the caribean and the US.

Moving to Canada has been an adventure, moving to Dorset or any of those other nice places felt like the opposite.

Strawberry

I aint......................... at the mo................. But when I do, I visited Canada and loved it.............. thats not to say that I agree with the "lets slag off England Brigade" !.........X

Strawberry

ditto............

Lorry1

We did move here for the kids, and we knew we would be financially worse off!

We lived in a very busy part of Berkshire, it was so overcrowded and we couldn't breathe.
Yes we could've moved to a nice little village somewhere but there would be no job opportunities and OH would either have to travel further every day or only be home at weekends.
We didn't want our 2 girls (age 12 and 5 at the time) growing up in England anymore in the yob culture it has become, with an increase in teenage pregnancies.

We chose NS as we heard it was family friendly with loads to do for the kids and people were nice and welcoming.
Everything I read was so positive and I really did look at everything through rose tinted glasses.
I thought that the UK was so bad that I couldn't bring my kids up there anymore, so NS it was.
Neither hubby or I had been to NS but I had been to ON and he had been all over Canada (apart from NS) and we both loved it and knew we wanted to move here years ago.

Well, yes it's true the people are friendly and welcoming and there is less crime, but its all relative cos there is also much less of a population too!

After the first year here, I removed my rose tinted glasses and found that the kids and teens are actually very similar to UK kids. My eldest is now 15 and they do not want to play out, they want to hang with their friends. They do not want to stay as young as possible, they want to be grown up. The girls dress like tarts and the boys dress like slobs. They swear and smoke, take drugs and drink.
The girls are giving BJ's in the woods behind the school and there are bullies, I know cos my 15 year old is being bullied.

Saying that, they are generally more polite and will move out the way if they pass you on the street, and they even say hello : )

As I said, it seems to be on a smaller scale but only because there is far less population and you don't notice the bad things as much.

So, are my kids better off here?
Does my daughter take drugs, smoke and drink?
I don't know, but there is certainly as much opportunity to do so here as there was in England. I know full well that some of her friends here do pretty much everything.

After all this, I wish we would've tried somewhere else first instead of dragging ourselves, and our kids accross the ocean, spending tons of cash in the process!
We are slowly earning more money and clearing our debts so we can have a life again

lmartin999

This is probably the post to help any parent having trouble persuading their teenage son to move with them to Canada. Compared to my school in England this is something that even I would agree is clearly better about Canada!

Lorry1

rubberduckofdeath

brilliant

kate 17

I just don't understand why those girls would be giving their blue jeans away!