My teen in australia
May 15th 2008, 12:45 am
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,374
My teen in australia
After my 'one year in', moaning thread, i wanted people to know of my teenager.
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school
(and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.
Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.
She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school
(and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life
, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
May 15th 2008, 9:32 am
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: May 2005
Location: Mornington
Posts: 1,650
Re: My teen in australia
We don't have kids, but my Sister moved out here 10 years ago with 2 teenage Daughters and they both love it.
1 is a trainee paramedic and the other a qualified hairdresser who just won't stop travelling
I think kids adapt quicker than we do.
Good post.
John
1 is a trainee paramedic and the other a qualified hairdresser who just won't stop travelling
I think kids adapt quicker than we do.
Good post.
John
May 15th 2008, 12:26 pm
#3
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 470
Re: My teen in australia
Hi John, my daughter is interested in becoming a paramedic, were bk in Uk but are heading bk to OZ maybe nxt year, is there anyway you can find out how your neice got into paramedic training in OZ and what my daughter (17yrs old) will need qualification wise to do it.
No probs if you tell me to sod off
Bluekipper
May 15th 2008, 1:01 pm
#4
Account Closed
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 503
Re: My teen in australia
Brilliant post Margaret3!
Nice to see that some reluctant teenagers make the most out of Australia when they've said beforehand that they did not want to come.
Hopefully you will give hope to parents of teenagers on the way out here.
M
Nice to see that some reluctant teenagers make the most out of Australia when they've said beforehand that they did not want to come.
Hopefully you will give hope to parents of teenagers on the way out here.
M
May 15th 2008, 1:04 pm
#5
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Joondalup Perth WA
Posts: 1,060
Re: My teen in australia
After my 'one year in', moaning thread, i wanted people to know of my teenager.
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school (and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.
Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.
She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school
(and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life
, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
When we decided to come back last year she was adamant she wasnt returning to UK, so she stayed in OZ. and she was only 17 by herself
Give her her due she has entered Uni done really great, lives with some friends has a great social life, uni work well shes above average keeps getting distintions, but I REALLY MISS HER But its her life and to be honest I want her to stay in Oz, there are more jobs than here and its become quite depressing over the last few weeks, bloody doom and gloom, my father keeps saying she will come home, but i really dont think theres anything here anymore for the kids, so much for pinning for UK, now I keep thinking of the kids future and seeing crap dunno what we are gonna do.........
May 15th 2008, 1:08 pm
#6
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 4,374
Re: My teen in australia
We had the same problems with our 18 year old. First she hated Oz then loved it then hated it, caused me and OH so much grief for pratically 3 years!!
When we decided to come back last year she was adamant she wasnt returning to UK, so she stayed in OZ. and she was only 17 by herself Give her her due she has entered Uni done really great, lives with some friends has a great social life, uni work well shes above average keeps getting distintions, but I REALLY MISS HER But its her life and to be honest I want her to stay in Oz, there are more jobs than here and its become quite depressing over the last few weeks, bloody doom and gloom, my father keeps saying she will come home, but i really dont think theres anything here anymore for the kids, so much for pinning for UK, now I keep thinking of the kids future and seeing crap dunno what we are gonna do.........
When we decided to come back last year she was adamant she wasnt returning to UK, so she stayed in OZ. and she was only 17 by herself
Give her her due she has entered Uni done really great, lives with some friends has a great social life, uni work well shes above average keeps getting distintions, but I REALLY MISS HER But its her life and to be honest I want her to stay in Oz, there are more jobs than here and its become quite depressing over the last few weeks, bloody doom and gloom, my father keeps saying she will come home, but i really dont think theres anything here anymore for the kids, so much for pinning for UK, now I keep thinking of the kids future and seeing crap dunno what we are gonna do.........I feel oz is a nightmare just now for expats, but there is a helluva lot more choice and optimism out there for teens about to embark on uni/tafe or the workforce, in comparison to scotland, (my feelings anyway),
What will happen when she finishes school, who knows?? am pinning my hopes on us all going back to scotland, then i can go back and beat myself up that she would have had a bette life in oz, oh god, anyone got a crystal ball!!!!!!!!
May 15th 2008, 1:20 pm
#7
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 251
Re: My teen in australia
I feel oz is a nightmare just now for expats, but there is a helluva lot more choice and optimism out there for teens about to embark on uni/tafe or the workforce, in comparison to scotland, (my feelings anyway),
What will happen when she finishes school, who knows?? am pinning my hopes on us all going back to scotland, then i can go back and beat myself up that she would have had a bette life in oz, oh god, anyone got a crystal ball!!!!!!!!
What will happen when she finishes school, who knows?? am pinning my hopes on us all going back to scotland, then i can go back and beat myself up that she would have had a bette life in oz, oh god, anyone got a crystal ball!!!!!!!!
Thats how I feel. I made myself ill when we lived in Oz - simply stress and homesickness but now after being back for over 2 years I honestly feel there are more opportunities for my boys over in Queensland. I miss the freedom for them and I do belive that as Australia continues to grow and flourish, we - UK - are getting dragged down. Our bills are huge - especially the Gas - we are on LPG as we live in the countryside, and its sickeningly expensive, along with council tax, electric, petrol, rising food bills, and everything else its a nightmare - then you have the news predicting gas will go up by 30%!!!!!!!! We all sit and take it though - we had the fuel strikes a few years ago when petrol hit £1 a litre - now its up at £1.18 we just sit and take it - at least the Aussies are vocal - we just pay through the nose and take it.
Everywhere has its downsides, here in the UK I am near my family, I have a full time job that is OK - decent wage but a bit boring but as perks - flexi, annual leave and pension. Husband has a good job but is in construction, which I find worrying in the current climate. Something is stil missing though, and I miss the sunshine (though not the humidity and intense heat of an Aussie summer) I miss the parks and the beach for my boys. I too them to a local park last week after work and bearing in mind we live in a smallish town, this park was in the village and is classes as a nice area. Some youths were in the park and when a group of little Brownies or maybe even Beavers walked past iwht their leader - all aged about 5-6 - this lad shouted 'Brownie B*stards' at them at the top of his voice - I told him to stop it and got aload of verbal and threats - had to leave the park and take my kids. I was shaking - we have reports of this sort of thing all the time and its horrible. I am scared sometimes of what I brought my boys back to.
We are waiting to sell the house and give Oz another go - though sometimes I wake in the night with that horrible fear of it happening to me allover again!!! I wonder sometimes if I will ever settle anywhere - I love my home but not what is going on in the outer areas.
May 15th 2008, 1:24 pm
#8
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 23,400
Re: My teen in australia
I feel oz is a nightmare just now for expats, but there is a helluva lot more choice and optimism out there for teens about to embark on uni/tafe or the workforce, in comparison to scotland, (my feelings anyway),
What will happen when she finishes school, who knows?? am pinning my hopes on us all going back to scotland, then i can go back and beat myself up that she would have had a bette life in oz, oh god, anyone got a crystal ball!!!!!!!!
What will happen when she finishes school, who knows?? am pinning my hopes on us all going back to scotland, then i can go back and beat myself up that she would have had a bette life in oz, oh god, anyone got a crystal ball!!!!!!!!
If she wants to stay in Australia after school and do some of the courses will you stay in Australia?
I cant believe she emailed your agent/nursing agency
She has pulled it out of the bag though, good on her and I reckon alot of it is down to you helping her settle so well.
May 15th 2008, 2:32 pm
#9
New Member
Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Devon
Posts: 47
Re: My teen in australia
After my 'one year in', moaning thread, i wanted people to know of my teenager.
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school (and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.
Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.
She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school
(and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life
, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
We hope to be in Oz in early September and my eldest boy is 15 and the youngest 11. We lived in Sydney for three years (2001-2004) and the boys loved their life and didn't want to come back to the UK. We had job offers out there but I (in my wisdom) thought we needed to go home to see what had changed and make an informed decision about emigrating.
We waited six months before we had the discussion...pro and cons etc. Family circumstances etc meant it was only last summer before we started to get things moving. Of course we have been back almost 4 years and the boys have settled here and don't want to go back! The eldest is in year 10, not an ideal time to go any which way you look at it and I have been dreading the backlash we could experience as a result of his resentment. The youngest is coming around to the idea - of course he is coming to the end of year 6, when the whole class is facing change and many are going off to different schools anyway.
Your post has made me believe we can weather the anticipated storm and Johull's post reminded me of some of reasons we are going back.
Thanks to you all.
May 15th 2008, 2:52 pm
#10
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: Benowa, Gold Coast
Posts: 252
Re: My teen in australia
After my 'one year in', moaning thread, i wanted people to know of my teenager.
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school (and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.
Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.
She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
She is 16 now and will be 17 in Nov, and like any other teenager making the move , she was for none of it, she tried a few tricks not to come, like emailing our agent and telling him we had changed our minds, telling the nursing agency i was not coming , etc, etc. She played the 'your messing with my head, my school , card etc.
We wanted her to sit her 4th year exams in scotland, however the timeing of validating the visas clashed with this, so she came to aus , validated her visa, and 2 weeks ltr, returned to scotlad to sit her exams. Think she wanted to be back with her mates more than sit her exams. After 8 weeks she cam back to aus. She was so glad to be back with her mum and dad, she realised which side her 'bread was buttered on'. A couple of her friends in Scotland tried to encourage her not to return, but she told them 'its ok for you, you have your parents with you, i need mine'.
So her attitude had changed slightly. She started school 2 weeks ltr, what a nightmare. When i picked her up from school on her first day, we both sat in the car crying. Anyway one year along, she is ruling the school
(and a few boys). It has been so different for her, she cam from a large school in scotlad (about 1300 kids), all scottish, to a large school here (think its got about 1000 pupils), and its VERY multicultural, and she has embraced it all, and learned so much through it.Dont get me wrong, there are problems at the school, its not all roses, for example, on the whole, greeks stick with greeks, asians with asians, etc, and can leat to trouble at times.
She is in year 11, and finds the work tough, but as long as they keep talking to the teachers, they get all the help they need. Yesterday, (off her own back), she took herself to the careers teacher, and came home all excited with (what looked like), about a million courses she could do. Don't get me wrong, my first thoughts are ' oh god she'll never come back to scotland', but i cant help getting sweeped along in her excitement of the future.
Most weekends she goes out to parties, shops or goes out for meals with her friends, we have met most of them, they are australians, indians, asian, greek, and are all typical teens.
Once of the 'odd', and unexpected things thats happened in her life here , is sport, she was VERY sporty in scotland, but has lost this here. She had never played the sports here, that the kids have been playing all their lives, i.e AFL, cricket, football, and by the time the kids get to her age they are experts at it, so she feels a bit of a fool. However she did take physical education as a subject here, but really struggles with it, gets a bit of hard time from the class, but she's not one to give up. She is playing a girls AFL game on Friday, having never played this in her life
, so who knows, in time, she may be just as sporty as she was in scotland.She misses her friends in scotland, but also loves her friends here. It is a very different 'teen culture', some of it better, some of it not.
But i wanted to post this to let peeps with teens know it can work out ok, however i think its alot harder for teenagers than for ANY other age group.
As some of you know , i would love to return to scotland, but i can honestly say, no matte what happens in the future, this has been a great experience for my kids, they have seen outside scotland, and it has been a good thing
I really hope things get better for u too soon & hope im not on the MBTUK forum with u shortly!!!
Michelle x
May 15th 2008, 6:18 pm
#11
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Joondalup Perth WA
Posts: 1,060
Re: My teen in australia
Hi
Thats how I feel. I made myself ill when we lived in Oz - simply stress and homesickness but now after being back for over 2 years I honestly feel there are more opportunities for my boys over in Queensland. I miss the freedom for them and I do belive that as Australia continues to grow and flourish, we - UK - are getting dragged down. Our bills are huge - especially the Gas - we are on LPG as we live in the countryside, and its sickeningly expensive, along with council tax, electric, petrol, rising food bills, and everything else its a nightmare - then you have the news predicting gas will go up by 30%!!!!!!!! We all sit and take it though - we had the fuel strikes a few years ago when petrol hit £1 a litre - now its up at £1.18 we just sit and take it - at least the Aussies are vocal - we just pay through the nose and take it.
Everywhere has its downsides, here in the UK I am near my family, I have a full time job that is OK - decent wage but a bit boring but as perks - flexi, annual leave and pension. Husband has a good job but is in construction, which I find worrying in the current climate. Something is stil missing though, and I miss the sunshine (though not the humidity and intense heat of an Aussie summer) I miss the parks and the beach for my boys. I too them to a local park last week after work and bearing in mind we live in a smallish town, this park was in the village and is classes as a nice area. Some youths were in the park and when a group of little Brownies or maybe even Beavers walked past iwht their leader - all aged about 5-6 - this lad shouted 'Brownie B*stards' at them at the top of his voice - I told him to stop it and got aload of verbal and threats - had to leave the park and take my kids. I was shaking - we have reports of this sort of thing all the time and its horrible. I am scared sometimes of what I brought my boys back to.
We are waiting to sell the house and give Oz another go - though sometimes I wake in the night with that horrible fear of it happening to me allover again!!! I wonder sometimes if I will ever settle anywhere - I love my home but not what is going on in the outer areas.
Thats how I feel. I made myself ill when we lived in Oz - simply stress and homesickness but now after being back for over 2 years I honestly feel there are more opportunities for my boys over in Queensland. I miss the freedom for them and I do belive that as Australia continues to grow and flourish, we - UK - are getting dragged down. Our bills are huge - especially the Gas - we are on LPG as we live in the countryside, and its sickeningly expensive, along with council tax, electric, petrol, rising food bills, and everything else its a nightmare - then you have the news predicting gas will go up by 30%!!!!!!!! We all sit and take it though - we had the fuel strikes a few years ago when petrol hit £1 a litre - now its up at £1.18 we just sit and take it - at least the Aussies are vocal - we just pay through the nose and take it.
Everywhere has its downsides, here in the UK I am near my family, I have a full time job that is OK - decent wage but a bit boring but as perks - flexi, annual leave and pension. Husband has a good job but is in construction, which I find worrying in the current climate. Something is stil missing though, and I miss the sunshine (though not the humidity and intense heat of an Aussie summer) I miss the parks and the beach for my boys. I too them to a local park last week after work and bearing in mind we live in a smallish town, this park was in the village and is classes as a nice area. Some youths were in the park and when a group of little Brownies or maybe even Beavers walked past iwht their leader - all aged about 5-6 - this lad shouted 'Brownie B*stards' at them at the top of his voice - I told him to stop it and got aload of verbal and threats - had to leave the park and take my kids. I was shaking - we have reports of this sort of thing all the time and its horrible. I am scared sometimes of what I brought my boys back to.
We are waiting to sell the house and give Oz another go - though sometimes I wake in the night with that horrible fear of it happening to me allover again!!! I wonder sometimes if I will ever settle anywhere - I love my home but not what is going on in the outer areas.
Mmm I feel very much the same at the moment, I hated Perth and my poor OH had a terrible time with me, we been back just over 7 months and OMG I am getting that feelin again
Would not live back in Perth but Queensland has still got that pull for me
May 15th 2008, 6:25 pm
#12
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Joondalup Perth WA
Posts: 1,060
Re: My teen in australia
Hi Margaret, great post & thks for sharing. We leave Glasgow nxt month with a near 15 year old girl who is the same as yr daughter. So glad she is loving it!
I really hope things get better for u too soon & hope im not on the MBTUK forum with u shortly!!!
Michelle x
I really hope things get better for u too soon & hope im not on the MBTUK forum with u shortly!!!
Michelle x
You just have to weather the storm, my eldest was soo horrible (she was 14 when we went) to her Dad that when I had to come back ot UK due to my mother suddenly dying she was so evil kicking hitting him, the police turned up and told my OH HE was gonna be arrested if she wanted to press charges
I said to her if she had done that would have been it 
She used to climb out the window at night, go out without telling us, abuse my OH and her two younger siblings, tell me how much she hated me OMG it was so hard how we all stayed together I never know.Now she tells my OH she loves him and misses us and says she cant believe how horrid she was to him
Still rings up and says shes got no money thoBe aware it can be hard but just ride the storm (it might not even happen for you).....
Kath
May 16th 2008, 7:46 am
#13
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 251
Re: My teen in australia
Thanks Margaret for starting this thread.
We hope to be in Oz in early September and my eldest boy is 15 and the youngest 11. We lived in Sydney for three years (2001-2004) and the boys loved their life and didn't want to come back to the UK. We had job offers out there but I (in my wisdom) thought we needed to go home to see what had changed and make an informed decision about emigrating.
We waited six months before we had the discussion...pro and cons etc. Family circumstances etc meant it was only last summer before we started to get things moving. Of course we have been back almost 4 years and the boys have settled here and don't want to go back! The eldest is in year 10, not an ideal time to go any which way you look at it and I have been dreading the backlash we could experience as a result of his resentment. The youngest is coming around to the idea - of course he is coming to the end of year 6, when the whole class is facing change and many are going off to different schools anyway.
Your post has made me believe we can weather the anticipated storm and Johull's post reminded me of some of reasons we are going back.
Thanks to you all.
We hope to be in Oz in early September and my eldest boy is 15 and the youngest 11. We lived in Sydney for three years (2001-2004) and the boys loved their life and didn't want to come back to the UK. We had job offers out there but I (in my wisdom) thought we needed to go home to see what had changed and make an informed decision about emigrating.
We waited six months before we had the discussion...pro and cons etc. Family circumstances etc meant it was only last summer before we started to get things moving. Of course we have been back almost 4 years and the boys have settled here and don't want to go back! The eldest is in year 10, not an ideal time to go any which way you look at it and I have been dreading the backlash we could experience as a result of his resentment. The youngest is coming around to the idea - of course he is coming to the end of year 6, when the whole class is facing change and many are going off to different schools anyway.
Your post has made me believe we can weather the anticipated storm and Johull's post reminded me of some of reasons we are going back.
Thanks to you all.
Hi Kath
Where are you - are you in Yorkshire?
I just hope I arent going to be one of those people who never settles anywhere. We will def go back to Queensland though, have friends there who are established. They - the women - went through the same feelings as me, but for them their parents are there so they dont feel as much as a pull for family. They went through the missing mates, familiar shops and environment, telly - sounds sad but when you have spent your entire life surrounded by everyday normal things, when they have gone, it takes some adjusting. They are all settled and when they do visit the UK feel that they couldnt live here again, though they thoroughly enjoy their trips back, they are glad to get back.
My 13 year old is looking forward to getting back - although he is nervous. He feels he will have a better life there - my 17 year old wants to go back but doesnt feel he is in a rush - says he wants to spend his 18th here with his mates!!!!
May 16th 2008, 8:54 am
#14
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Joondalup Perth WA
Posts: 1,060
Re: My teen in australia
Hi
We are in Kent. We love seeing the family and friends, but obviously we came back cos of various other reasons i.e. Mum passing over and my Dad has been seriously ill. I always wanted to go to Queensland but for various reasons we didnt and now I think we might go back in a couple of years, we will have to see. I dont know why Im feeling unsettled again Im sure its just all this media stuff over here although I must say we are struggling a lot more than I thought we would financially and OH is on a really good wage now
Kids are really happy though and schooling in Uk is much better than oz.
When are you hoping to go back? sounds like your mate is like mine she really struggled at first but good on her she has made a go of it and they are doing fantastic, just wish it was us as well
We are in Kent. We love seeing the family and friends, but obviously we came back cos of various other reasons i.e. Mum passing over and my Dad has been seriously ill. I always wanted to go to Queensland but for various reasons we didnt and now I think we might go back in a couple of years, we will have to see. I dont know why Im feeling unsettled again Im sure its just all this media stuff over here although I must say we are struggling a lot more than I thought we would financially and OH is on a really good wage now
Kids are really happy though and schooling in Uk is much better than oz.
When are you hoping to go back? sounds like your mate is like mine she really struggled at first but good on her she has made a go of it and they are doing fantastic, just wish it was us as well
May 16th 2008, 9:12 am
#15
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 251
Re: My teen in australia
Hi
We are in Kent. We love seeing the family and friends, but obviously we came back cos of various other reasons i.e. Mum passing over and my Dad has been seriously ill. I always wanted to go to Queensland but for various reasons we didnt and now I think we might go back in a couple of years, we will have to see. I dont know why Im feeling unsettled again Im sure its just all this media stuff over here although I must say we are struggling a lot more than I thought we would financially and OH is on a really good wage now
Kids are really happy though and schooling in Uk is much better than oz.
When are you hoping to go back? sounds like your mate is like mine she really struggled at first but good on her she has made a go of it and they are doing fantastic, just wish it was us as well
We are in Kent. We love seeing the family and friends, but obviously we came back cos of various other reasons i.e. Mum passing over and my Dad has been seriously ill. I always wanted to go to Queensland but for various reasons we didnt and now I think we might go back in a couple of years, we will have to see. I dont know why Im feeling unsettled again Im sure its just all this media stuff over here although I must say we are struggling a lot more than I thought we would financially and OH is on a really good wage now
Kids are really happy though and schooling in Uk is much better than oz.
When are you hoping to go back? sounds like your mate is like mine she really struggled at first but good on her she has made a go of it and they are doing fantastic, just wish it was us as well
I find things very expensive too, I see alot of posts from people in Oz talking about coming back and finding Oz expensive but I think they are thinking about how they managed befor they left UK. Our food bills have shot up, petrol, heating - the lot. Still do ok but there is the added pressure.
I just hope that second time around we will all settle fine and be happy. I went through the whole - what if we went to the wrong part of Australia and thats why I didnt settle - but I think it would have happened wherever I went, I wasnt ready at that time. My 13 year old is looking forward to it thoug, I asked him how he felt about leaving his mates and he said he willmiss them but will be fine, he said he never actually wanted to come back and liked it, he just wanted me to be happy again - which made me feel doubly like the worst mum in the world. I kick myself that we would hve been there for 3 years now and have been settled and established and will now ba going back to square one. The only plus I have is that my friends there, who I still talk to weekly on the telephone, and text almost every other day, even after all this time, have made lots of contacts and this will hopefully broaden employment and opportunites for us there. Hubby is a builder and I have been offered a job working for my friends dads company doing their admin, 4 days a week school hours, so sounds great. WIll miss my folks but they are talking about getting an apartment and coming over for a few months at a time.
The kids are doing fine in school here, but did fine there. I think I find life in general is more easy going for them there - weather, pool, hanging out in the mall - without gangs of chavs and chavettes lurking on every available corner. We have a real mixture of cultures up here where we are and they all seem to stick to thier own little gangs - but not in a nice way, its quite intimidating at times. I fear for my 5 year old if we stayed - but then again I dont know what I am going back to in Queensland - its a nightmare!!!!!!!!