johnh009

I can only agree. I moved back to the UK after 23 years in Toronto and live in the Malvern area. Here, there is hardly any crime and certainly no road rage. The best thing is the classical culture and history which is definitely lacking in Canada. There are so many interesting places to visit within a short drive. In Toronto, you can only visit the CN Tower, Casa Loma, and Niagara Falls so many times.

But, even in England, much depends on where you live. If you live in the centre of one of the depressed cities, life can be tough. If you live on the West Sussex coast then that could be a different story.

Londonuck

Also depends on your mindset. If you want to leave UK you see crime everywhere. If you want to return its like an episode of The Darling Buds of May

gooner4200000

We moved back to the UK last march after 6+ years in ottawa with boys aged 12 and 15. Absolutely love being back. Very easy adapting back to life here, no problems whatsoever. Schools excellent, boys slotted in very well and doing excellent. I sometimes miss the wide open spaces of Canada and the summer heat but love the buzz of the UK and having everything you need on your doorstep. Don't regret emigrating but now look at the UK through a new pair of eyes and with my glass half full and not half empty.

I'm a police officer and food for thought Canada with half the UK's population had more murders last year than we did. I blame the Daily Mail myself always making this country look bad when really it's no worse than anywhere else in reality and far better than most!

Good luck

izzi81

Just did a bit of rummaging on this as I often read comments on here about murder rates in both places but haven't looked up any stats. Wikipedia seems to have a pretty thorough world breakdown, including Canada by province and UK by country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._homicide_rate

Obviously where you live in the UK will affect how much you notice crime, but that appears to be even more the case in Canada. Nunavut definitely biases the results!

sallysimmons

Amen!!

Dunstable Diva

I hope to return one day. My youngest son is 15 and I was going to wait untill he is college age so how is your 15 year old getting on? Where are you in the UK?

Mrs-G

all these points are very interesting - but given that the OP is already struggling financially, getting back to the uk could be financially difficult.

And all of this seems to assume that the OP and her husband will be able to come back here during a time when prices are rocketing and most people are struggling and that they will be able to get decent jobs within a reasonable timescale.

No offence to all of you who want to move home, I've been through it twice now. And I'm about to leave the UK again. The majority (not all) of the positive posts about the UK are from people who do not currently live here. We can all remember how things were, or how they are when we go back to visit family - I've done the same thing myself. I've been living back here for 5 years now and I can honestly say it seems to have got worse every year. And I've not wanted to leave for 5 years - thats a relatively recent thing, but I've realised that's its not the UK I remembered - which is fine... but all those who are reminiscing about it being whatever it is they remember - please do your research and have a long think before coming back.

If at the end of the day, you still want to, that's great - I'm really not trying to have a go at anyone. All I'm trying to say is that it may not be how you recall it, and it may no longer be better than where you are.

gooner4200000

We moved to northamptonshire, lovely villages, reasonable house prices and good access to major employment hubs. 15 year old did go back a school year so he could do the two year GCSE options.12 year old in his own year and neither have experienced any problems and getting good grades.

We moved back for both personal and employment reasons and loved Canada as a country, but just didn't fancy spending the rest of our life there, also found it quite expensive once the kids started growing up for things like household expenses, sport, travel etc. My wages didn't cover our outgoings in the end and my wife would have needed to go back to work full time which sort of defeated the object really. Now she works part time and we are better off financially here in the UK.

Like the other threads say, location and employment are the key factors in moving back

Mummy in the foothills

I think you have to pick your poison. Struggle financially somewhere where you don't have family support and don't really want to be but it's OK, or struggle financially somewhere where you have family and friends for support and comfort and where you know your way.

Dunstable Diva

Agree 100%. Well said. Thinking exact same thing whilst reading Mrs Gs post. I love it when I read like-minded comments

Dunstable Diva

Same as. Have lived all over Herts and Beds. Would probs go back to Dunstable as my mum and sis live there and other sis lives in Harpenden which is lovely but too expensive. Dunstable is not the nicest place on earth visually but the people are great and mine and hubbys family are there. I find the Brit peeps who settle in Canada well have no connection to UK. Usually are not close to family and came from a real dump. For me PERSONALLY I feel Canada has no soul

johnh009

I think it is because the British are regarded as being self-deprecating, even by themselves. There is much written about this and it is well noted. It is probably due to the fact that we tend to be more modest, generally speaking of course.

AlexInBC

Generalise, much?

We return to the UK once a year for a couple of weeks to visit all the family that we are very close to...and they have visited us a few times...but I enjoy day to day life over here so much more than I did "back home". I can honestly say that seeing family and friends is the only reason I feel compelled to visit the UK. I really dread the thought of ever having to move back due to circumstances beyond our control.

We came from a very nice area in Cheshire, but life is far better for us here. People are much friendlier. We've been here 5 years and feel we have made many real friends in our neighbourhood, who we could (and have) turn to if we needed help with anything. They are much nicer people than we lived amongst in England. More welcoming and accepting of people they don't know than the cliquey locals where we used to live (and lived for the same length of time - 5 years!) Here friends invite us round for meals on a regular basis and we all organise events for big groups of friends to get together. Since Boxing Day we've attended a 24hr "movie marathon" with about 20 others at one couple's house, skated on 2 different families' lakes/ponds, been taken up to the top of a mountain on a snow-cat (as a completely free, purely social thing, on NYE, even though that's how this friend makes his living!), been downhill skiing with a group of friends for a day, had various friends round for drinks/dinner here on a couple of occasions, and it's only been, what, a couple of weeks...?

This is in total contrast to the when we lived in the UK where we basically only had a few close friends from uni days, that were scattered all over the UK, and we barely knew our neighbours.

FYI, I love life in Canada - as do the rest of my family.

I can fully understand that the reality is very different for many people, and I sympathise with the OP, but Dunstable Diva - I have to say that your comment was patronising, more than a little insulting and very narrow minded.

Dunstable Diva

Im sorry if you found my comment patronising and insulting. It wasnt meant to be. We can only draw upon our own experiences. When you have spent the last 5 years struggling to make ends meet you tend to get a bit bitter and twisted. I tend to vent. I am very close to my fam and find it quite heartbreaking to be away from them. But as I said can only draw from my friends here. Im glad things have worked out great for you and your family and again apologies

AlexInBC

No worries - just ignore my rant - I'm the one who should apologise for being too sensitive. I was feeling overly defensive after having only just finished justifying how we could possibly cope with living in such "isolation" to someone else, back home, who'd assumed that we went for days without speaking to anyone because we'd chosen to live out in the sticks!