What if

Thank you. Schools with metal detectors does not sound good, although some of the rougher schools here now have security and random drug dog patrols. Not unusual to see the police vans parked outside at the end of school too now. My younger ones go to a lovely primary school but I choose to drive them out of birmingham for that, a choice I wont have when they move up to secondary school

Can't knock the Bullring for shopping though

Sweden sounds good, meant to be a great place for children to grow up.

hayleyatfla

yes i have friend that moed to sweeden got married nd had a child then she came back to the states, she was here a little over a year could not find a job, moved from Florida to Georgia and back, did not like the schools either... I also have a few Brit friends move to Denmark... Heard they have great schools and it is a very beutiful place...

dontheturner

Do have a look at Thailand - It is incredibly cheap to live here , Thais have no beds, no furniture, no tables, chairs, or settees, and the food is so, you never have to cook - no Tax, and they live in Sheds, and sleep on the floor. - Me? I am over 80, and there is no place like England, and Birmingham is the Best. Good Luck, dontheturner

Beedubya

If I could turn the clock back to 1981 when I was 28 and my children were 6 and 9 and we lived in a place with high unemployment (just like you at the moment) there is no way knowing what I know now I would have moved to sunny Australia..........

I would have looked to move to another part of the UK, and not taken my kids away from all their family over there. Regrets about that? Big time!!

Have you thought of looking around other places, maybe down south where the weather is a bit milder as I know the weather can get you down and make things seem miserable when there are no jobs, etc.

What if

Thank you for your comments . Can I ask you Beedubya what you meant by "there is no way knowing what I know now I would have moved to sunny Australia" as it might help me see the grass may not be greener. Was it just moving from the family?

I think you may be right about moving elsewhere in England. I'm currently training to be a nurse in the hope that a better income will allow us to move. Don't get me wrong I think Brummies are some of the friendliest people and I'm proud to be one but it is just not the Birmingham I grew up in. I know times change and all that but rose tinted glasses about how people remember Birmingham to be "back in the day" pays no resemblance to the Birmingham my children are growing up in now unfortunately.

My husband has always worked in warehousing so I guess any area he can find work is going to need to be more industrialised and so similar to Birmingham, therefore defeating the purpose of moving. I'm sure there are much much worse places to live in England than Birmingham!

dontheturner

Hello, W -- Shropshire - do have a look at that - include Wrexham, plenty of large companies have warehousing there , and it is only one hour away from the coast. Check housing on www.rightmove.co.uk and maybe find a rental, lots in wrexham, wetre furnished if needs be, too, last time I checked. good luck dontheturner

What if

Hi Don. That's very helpful information thank you, I'll look into that.

Nick11

Our friends move back to Birmingham from Adelaide last year.
They had their old jobs and old rental to go back to.
They left Adelaide on July 30th and ping pomed back to Adelaide by October 5th!!!!

Poor bloody dog didn't know what had hit him!!!!!

Beedubya

Yes I meant moving them away from family when they were 9 and 6. In the UK they had grand-parents, aunties, uncles, cousins etc. I dragged them half away across the world for a "better life" and they have done no better than their cousins of the same age in the UK.

My daughter told me recently that her happiest childhood memories are of living in the UK before we moved.

We just never had the money for yearly trips back home like some do, it was 5 years before our first trip when we moved back there and only stayed a year and came back to Oz again, our kids HATED it in England, and they made life miserable for everybody as only teenagers can do.

My daughter now says we shouldn't have listened to them and came back but just should have stayed put.

And now here I am going back there to live on my own after 30 years here. I am now divorced and feel soooo bad about "abandoning" my kids and grand-kids here in Australia and is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make but I just can't hack living here any longer.

How much easier it would have been if we had moved down South or just another part of the UK..................

Of course when you are young and fed up like you, you don't think in terms of the far future like that, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If you have a burning desire to get away from it all by emigrating to Australia, then of course you should.

If however, it's more of a passing thought on a rainy day and things look a bit grim where you live, then do look at other places in the UK.

Good luck whatever you decide to do, oh and BTW when I was living in the Lake District there was a warehouse job going offered to me by the employment agency, it was more admin than actual warehousing as my background is in logistics, but you never know what is right on your doorstep until you look.

What if

Sorry about the very delayed reply - laptop broke. Thank you for your story it's very helpful to hear about others experiences when considering our own options. You may be right about moving to somewhere else in England and as I'm not sure what exactly it is I looking for it proves it's not the right time to be jumping to any decisions just yet. I hope you settle well back in England and have a happy healthy future back here

Sorry for hijacking your thread hayleyatfla

hayleyatfla

No highjacking... I'm glad to see so many other brummies on here....