BadgeIsBack

Hutch will grow out of it.

Its all true. People get sick of double standards. People acuse other people of having rose tinted glasses when they themselves also have rose tinted glasses. The difference is that people like Hutch are going for it, the same way you guys have to want to return. There is also the case a lot of you guys being the victim of rose tinted glasses twice, once to get over here, once to go back.....I still stand by my economic claim that if you plan it right, all things being equal, and alot have to be, that an average person can do well in Australia comparing apples with apples. But you only get one chance.

I do feel desperately sorry for some of you lot and I do feel guilty that we seem to have got all the elements right. The more I live here, the more I realise we can enjoy this country DESPITE it's 'problems', in fact, they either don't effect us or we can get around them, I shake my head at all the little problems so many people get. We seem to have found a unique area which has its own micro-culture and lifestyle.

Many of the UK things you guys miss, we get eg open fires, pubs, walks, seasons. I shake my head daily as I realise that I like Australia precisely because it offers me what I worked hard to get in the UK but now don't need to work nearly as hard to mantain whilst there are thosands who hate it. What did they deserve to get that? And that's knowing full well its not perfect.. One day I want to visit Perth properly, see the 'vulgarity' of the Gold Goast to see what Dotty, Jad and Rich mean and see how the other half live. I'm so used to expats I tell everyone (Poms) how bad this country is, they look at me 'why are you here' I have to tell them I love it here - and I'm just being objective. I find it on my own terms. Make no mistake I've found no place like it anywhere else, and yet still be 50mins from a modern city.

But you guys make good reading and I wish you all the best.

dunroving

To quote your username, "that's not quite right" - on both counts.

Original post said "This country was founded and built by migrants " - I didn't learn in history class that Australia was founded and built since the Second World War. Hence my comment on the earlier "founders" of Australia.

And to say that everyone focuses on the bad things is a pretty cynical outlook. In fact, people on this forum get criticized frequently for having rose tinted glasses - can't have it both ways, can we?

srd

Hi, yes we are one of those families who moved back when one wanted to and the other didnot. It has taken its toll on us and also our 3 children, now 18, 17 and 15. Our problem is now that we want to return to Oz, but our children do not want to come. After talking to many people I have come to realise that this is very normal to feel this level of missing everything and of having a knot in your stomach. It is also very normal for milestones to trigger it. We have wasted a lot of time, effort and money with our moving about and now I wish it was harder to move back to UK as then we would have stuck with it and maybe be settled by now. Would especially like to hear from anyone with teenagers. Hope you can come to the right decision, sometimes its harder to make with so many opinions, good luck in whatever you decide.

BadgeIsBack

"And as for the comments about the heritage of Oz, remember that convicts are a lot tougher than the average person, back then their life really WAS crap in the UK, and they had no choice. Put all of those things together and it's not hard to see why they stayed."

no but the convicts weren't migrants, that was my point. So I then tried to come forward a bit to actual migrants who arguably had a lower standard of living - ie the post war population from Western/southern Europe who really did *grow* this country - the mass postwar migration explosion. Additionally, anecdotally, its interesting to see that people who knock the UK are people from the 60s and the 70s, early 80s; they've gone back recently and can't believe the improvement: although I think this is now worldwide.

And I agree about the rose-tints and having it both ways.

dunroving

I'm not going to get into a semantic argument with you. They ususally drone on and lead nowhere.

So, you stick to your opinion and I'll stick to mine, life's too short.

BadgeIsBack

OK. Reread my edited post and you will see that my point is actually very applicable...to the argument and not semantic....... if you want...(!)

kt.2006

I have just noticed that you have a son in Year 10 here so he hasn't yet started the important senior years 11/12. I'm thinking of returning to the UK and have a son in Year 10 and was interested in what the schools had to say to you about missing Year 10 which is part of the important GCSE years 10/11 in England. What advice have they given you if you don't mind me asking. Have they said that he can make up the missed time or would he have to repeat a year (my son would hate that ).

I have found the schools in Australia much better at returning emails, etc, than those in the UK!!!

You have to do what is best for yourselves. We met a British couple who told us sadly that they had come to Australia 25 years ago in order to give their boys a better life. He said that one of his boys now lives in London and the other in Stockholm and they have never seen their grandchildren. They are now retired and on their own with no other relatives in Australia.

TouristTrap

This forum is a riot to read after you've had a few

No place is perfect. There is no written law that states you cannot move about. Do it, but do it intelligently, i.e., ensure that you or your kids can return if things don't pan out as you'd like.

Can be simpler said than done when you're going through the rollercoaster, but, better to use your head than to lose your heart

PADDAD

We have only finalized the sale of our Aus house this weekend and expect to settle in June so I haven't been in touch with my son's school yet. I plan to have a meeting with his year 10 co-ordinator this week so will let you know the outcome by the following week.

srd

Hi

we returned to Uk, with a son who had missed 2 terms of yr 10, a son who missed first yr of sixth form and a daughter who missed 2 terms of yr 9. the one in yr 10 had 2 options, to either re-do the year or to take on additional work to catch up, this was the option we chose but we had to really fight the system to do this. he did pass 6 GCSE's grade c which was fine to get into college. the son who started sixth form did not stick with it, he found it very hard to be with people younger than in him, also in general we found the teenagers of his age to be more emotionally mature in oz than back in Uk and so he found them boring and too young for him. my daughter soon caught up and is taking her GCSE's this year. our problem now is that all along we have said we were only returning to UK for a short term, which unfortunately has turned out longer than we hoped. we now want desperately to return to Oz and our children are refusing to come. with hindsight my OH and i wish we had not come back here. are your children happy about the return?

sassenach

Thats a bit rich coming from an irish man calling us i presume english whingers just about every irish man i met in the uk was talking and looking back on their times in galway and donegal and always whinging about england this england that well the fact is if you dont like eff off back ,well the same is said here if you dont like eff off back theres no shame or failure in it ,fair play if the materialistic plastic claptrap appeals to you but it dont appeal to all ,im voting with my feet head high knowing i have given 15 years of my life to this country with no regrets .

sassenach

simply said but profound words ,so what if you want to move around its no big deal i agree

kt.2006

We are still deciding whether to return to the UK or not. It does worry me that I will return to the UK and then wish to be back in Australia!

The children are in private schools which they love but we will have to take them out as we have both found it difficult to get jobs and my husband is now earning half what he did in the UK and so it makes the private schools quite expensive. So they will have to go to the local state school anyway, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I have spoken to the LEA in England and have been told that my son's old school is over-subscribed and he would most likely not have a place there anyway which is going to be hard for him as we don't want him to miss too much of Year 10.

I wish we had never come here as everything is so unsettled. It will probably improve with time but the job situation here is not good for us. We are missing family a lot, and are especially concerned for my FIL and MIL who are getting on in age.

srd

[QUOTE=kt.2006]We are still deciding whether to return to the UK or not. It does worry me that I will return to the UK and then wish to be back in Australia!

Hi, your situation sounds so similar to that of ours, my FIL had a heart attack while we were away and that was awful, he recovered though, but it put a lot of pressure on my OH on whether to return to see him, FIL said dont though which helped.

No-one can tell you what to do, but i wish with hindsight that we had not returned, it really has turned our lives upside down with half of us wanting to return, spliting up the family etc. It is very difficult to get through those 'blue months' when you are so unsettled, but it will change. We also had the money problem you mention, earning half of UK wages, now we are back in the UK yes we earn a lot more, but our bills are a lot more and its the great old saying, money cannot buy you happiness. We now have more money to return with, but not the family to come with us - how ironic. Please try and give it some time, set small goals for yourself and see how you get on. Good luck.

kt.2006

[QUOTE=srd] Did you go back to the same place that you had lived in the UK or did you go somewhere else? Emigrating has made me realise that I was quite happy and well within my comfort zone in my UK village. However my main concern was that the local town was horrible/violent and would not be a good place for teenagers to go out in. Now I worry about staying here in Australia and not being able to return to my old life .

Before I started the process of emigrating I was always very easy going and not that over emotional, but now anything seems to set me off feeling sad and fed up. I would miss Australia if I moved back to the UK as it's mostly homesickness that I feel. I feel trapped here at the moment as I have no job and I have not made any friends, and I miss my friends and family in the UK.

It is very unsettling for the children to have all this upheaval and putting their lives on hold while we go through the moving process. Do your children prefer the UK or do they just want to stay there now because teenagers have different priorities such as apprenticeships, girlfriends, etc. and the promise of a swimming pool and bigger house just aren't so important to them.