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Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off?

Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off?

Old May 5th 2010, 3:33 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

This is why people want to leave sinkhole Britain when stories like these are becoming the commonplace. I don't want my taxes going to support these benefit fraudsters. Better get out before your kids end up like this.

£20,000 benefits so father of seven can keep his children in video games and him in booze
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Old May 5th 2010, 3:33 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by dbd33
<Snickers at "cultural diversity" being good in Canada but "uncontrolled immigration" being bad in the UK>
Perhaps he was referring to the rich cultural vein that is Quebec
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Old May 5th 2010, 3:36 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by lmartin999
Have you spent any time in a Canadian University?

Have you seen house prices in Toronto?
I believe the thread title mentioned Canada, of which Toronto is just one part
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Old May 5th 2010, 3:46 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by lmartin999
Have you spent any time in a Canadian University?
Much too much and the standard is woefully low especially in the training colleges.
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Old May 5th 2010, 3:48 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by dbd33
That sounds like me. ...having them in Canada entails a considerable expense in flying them home every summer; not to do so is to risk their assimilation as well as estrangement from their family in Europe. The extent to which they have had better lives than their cousins in the UK is, I think, a simple consequence of their being more money in the household in Canada.

I don't see how moving to Canada without there being more money could be advantageous for children so I wonder what intangible benefit people think may compensate for raising them in a foreign country far from their relatives.
Yes, it's your comment (tried to move it to a new thread, but seems to veered completely off the original question and we are now on immigration)!

Well, some of see it as a positive to be away from our relatives.... we've maintained a safe distance of 200 miles for the past 20 years, but now the kids are growing older, seems wise to put an ocean between us. Seriously, you don't know our families. There is no way we would be flying back to the UK every year to see them so that's an expense we can safely discount. The only member of our extended family I have any desire to see lives in Canada.

There must be some really good reasons out there why people feel their kids are better off in Canada, despite a reduction in finances, otherwise they would not do it. Money isn't the only thing that affects your quality of life - lots of amusements are free (no smutty comments please).

So... can we move off from immigration/nepotism/class structure and come back to the original question before it gets lost forever - I really do want people's experiences please!
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Old May 5th 2010, 3:53 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Oink
This is why people want to leave sinkhole Britain when stories like these are becoming the commonplace. I don't want my taxes going to support these benefit fraudsters. Better get out before your kids end up like this.

£20,000 benefits so father of seven can keep his children in video games and him in booze
Can you imagine what lies the Daily Mail journo told them in order to get them to pose for a nice family shot?

Anyway, Britain should ship layabouts like these off to the colonies... Australia, or Canada perhaps. That'll teach 'em.
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:02 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Kaye5
So... can we move off from immigration/nepotism/class structure and come back to the original question before it gets lost forever - I really do want people's experiences please!
Did your original question mean better off financially, or better of as in have a better life....

I think the other topics that come up play into this idea of what is "better off"

Ive a feeling that many of the things we pay for our kids to do are significantly cheaper here, so there is no reason less income means less for kids to do necessarily anyway...
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:03 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by iaink
Did your original question mean better off financially, or better of as in have a better life....

I think the other topics that come up play into this idea of what is "better off"
It means better off that you were before.
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:08 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Oink
It means better off that you were before.
Again though, is that better off as in their lives ten years from now will be better than if people stayed in the UK, or is their life better 6 months after arriving...

Its impossible to answer anyway, I think if the parents hate it here no amount of material things are going to protect the kids from the knock on effect of that, happy parents = happy kids, money has not much to do with a kids happyness, mine will play with a cardboard box just as much as whatever it was that came in it, they care about doing stuff far more than owning stuff.
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:08 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Kaye5
There must be some really good reasons out there why people feel their kids are better off in Canada
Because half their relatives speak English but not French and half speak French but not English, a bilingual upbringing fitted well.
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:09 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Canada is a very parochial and insular place to grow up. I don't think Canadian kids are anywhere near as 'worldly' or generally globally-aware as British kids are.

We as Brits can all appreciate the superiority of, for example, the BBC for news - it's the British background. Imagine growing up without that reference, without the constant quality of news and current affairs discussions that Britain is so good at... how ignorant and isolated do you think that might make you in comparison?
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:14 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Jingsamichty
Canada is a very parochial and insular place to grow up. I don't think Canadian kids are anywhere near as 'worldly' or generally globally-aware as British kids are.
That's not necessarily the case. Growing up in Toronto one would be exposed to children from all over the world, children who also go home for the summer, and so be indirectly exposed to all kinds of influences. Growing up in Barrie, not so much.
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:19 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by iaink
Did your original question mean better off financially, or better of as in have a better life....

I think the other topics that come up play into this idea of what is "better off"

Ive a feeling that many of the things we pay for our kids to do are significantly cheaper here, so there is no reason less income means less for kids to do necessarily anyway...
I mean that for those who are worse off financially do they feel they their kids are still better off as in better quality of life (DESPITE having less money)... so your comment re things you pay for for kids being significantly cheaper is very relevant, as is the one about happy parents = happy kids.

There seems to be a difference of opinion regarding materialistic attitudes of kids in UK/Canada. Here in London it is very materialistic, and that affects my kids in that they can't always have the latest or "best" of everything. My eldest gets bullied at school for having the wrong trainers, old games console, etc.

So, I'm looking at quality of life now, as children. While their futures will undoubtedly be affected by where they are brought up, they will be able to make their own decisions at age 18 whether to return to the UK or to stay in Canada (or move somewhere else).
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:24 pm
  #74  
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Yes because they get the chance to make snowmen
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Old May 5th 2010, 4:28 pm
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Default Re: Are your children better off in Canada, even though you are financially worse off

Originally Posted by Kaye5
Here in London it is very materialistic, and that affects my kids in that they can't always have the latest or "best" of everything. My eldest gets bullied at school for having the wrong trainers, old games console, etc.
I don't think that's any different. I recall kids being classified according to the source of their prom dresses, some fetched them from Paris, some from NYC, some bought them locally. One girl was sneered at because she went to Paris for a dress, the joke was that it was a novelty for her, the better off students routinely went there for clothes.

(My child fetched her prom footwear from Covent Garden; the Doc. Martens shop.)
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