Sally Redux

We also stressed the positive. My son wasn't taken in though, which rebounded on me when I soon came to agree with him.

N1cky

My daughter seems to insist on sounding different. When we moved here she was 5, and couldn't pronounce the letter 'L', she would say yemon instead of lemon... She was having elecution lessons at school in the UK, but as all her friends and teachers understood her she didn't make any effort out of her lessons. Within 3 weeks of moving to Los Angeles she said L perfectly as everyone had a hard enough time understanding her English accent she decided that was one too many hurdle for them.

After living in LA for nearly 4 years she spoke with an American accent with an English twang, sounding very different to her friends.

Now we live in No Cal, and she has adopted the Valley Girl accent of LA, so sounds exactly as her friends do in LA, but totally different to her friends here.

Brat1

We moved her in February 2010 and my kids were 10, 12 and 16. We tackled it by talking about it as a family, trying to be upfront about it from the start and also trying to involve them in the whole process. They were not amused I have to say and were not excited or keen to move from the UK. It was hard at the start for everyone, but I have to say, our youngest by far, settled in the easiest. The middle one took a bit longer and the oldest hated every second we were here (that has subsequently changed since the American boyfriend came on the scene ), but I think it's totally an individual thing. We were back in the UK for the first time there, at Christmas, and my middle daughter couldn't wait to get "home" to the US. I think that the settling in period is definitely a personal thing, depending on the personality of the person, how quickly they make friends, settle in to school etc.

Good luck with the move, I'm sure everything will be fine and I wouldn't change a thing, even though the journey is a rollercoaster, you do what you think is right for your family and I'm sure that whatever decisions you make will be the right ones

rallybug

Oh arrrr - I don't think I have a strong Zummerzet accent, but people seem to think I do. Personally, I think that they have hearing difficulties

I'm a born and bred Yeovilian (and all my family live in the Somerset/Dorset/Devon area), so if you need any local pointers, give me a shout.

Gabgoeshome

I love that accent.

I was looking at properties in Yeovil yesterday actually!

My family are in the North Dorset spot

kodokan

We've moved here a few months ago, with kids then aged 11 and 7 (now 12 and 8, as I've spent the last week doing both their birthdays... *exhausted sigh*).

Our situation was a bit different, as we'd been living in Switzerland for several years, where the kids had been going to school in French. This made it quite a positive change, especially for my 11 year old son, who'd struggled a little with the language.

We told them in April, then came out here a few weeks' later for a look-see visit. This definitely made the whole thing more real for them, and since we all had a fabulous sunny holiday staying in a villa with a pool, it was an easy sell for the actual move. We moved in October, and by then the children had clearly emotionally detached from their old life and were ready to say goodbye to their friends. I'd recommend telling them sooner rather than later, to give them as long as possible to make the mental adjustment. (They have to go through various stages of shock, disbelief, denial, cautious excitement, anticipation, etc etc, and this all takes several months.)

Everyone here LOVES my kids' accents, especially my son's - his is resolutely English, even when he was speaking fluent French in Switzerland. My daughter has a brilliant ear for sounds and is more fluid - she spoke French with no trace of English accent whatsoever, and is now 'bi-accented' in the US, as she speaks regular English at home with us, and the local Southwest drawl when talking to her friends; 'I talk like this with them else they don't understand me'.

Edit: And we used to live in Yeovil too, for about 6 years in the early 2000s... small world... It's a lovely area.

We seem to be total celebrities in our school, and the middle school we visited the other day for their Open Evening was equally excited to get a real live European child joining them in August (the Social Studies teacher was almost weeping with joy at the opportunity to get out the globe and possibly get the kids to pay attention to it for once).

It really is luck of the draw, though - my son's fallen in with a brilliant little gang of boys in his class who all love things like Lego and computers, so is totally socially accepted despite only going into 6th grade for 6 months, with kids who've all known each other since KG. Whereas in Switzerland he was much more socially isolated, as most of the boys in the class were football nuts, which doesn't interest him at all. Just depends... I'd definitely tell them as soon as practical, though - they really do need a fairly lengthy time to come to terms with it, and to mentally say goodbye to their old life.

LillyRobeson

We took a very different approach. My two children have known a move to the US was on the cards ever since I was shortlisted for my job (in June last year!!). Then when I got offered the job and we had to make a decision, we got their input and we because we've had such a long lead in time, we managed to get in a visit to NYC (where we're moving to) and get the kids super-excited about the move. I can't imagine keeping such a big thing from them!!! (of course every family is different, I'm sure your approach works for your family)

SalopianFunk

I'd have to agree with this. I was 16 at the time I moved also, and my parents tried to sell the idea to me, to no avail. But then I always knew we were moving to Bum****, Pop. 1 moderatley sized inbred family. Or as i disaffectionately call it, Modesto, California. Had I been considerably younger, say the age of either of your younger two, and didn't have such passive parents, it probably wouldn't have taken me as long as 6 years to finally settle...And only then because I went away to the nearest interesting place for uni.

Anyway, Ruthie_S, yours shouldn't find it much trouble in the long-run, being at that age where kids haven't made most of their friends. However, as someone who did move as a child, I didn't find i received eloquent attention from my parents (although I didn't realize they were struggling to find their places at the same time), and was expected from them to simply accept the Blue Waffle of California as my new home. We never really did travel around to any of the more interesting places around the area nor exhibit any of the local(ish) interesting experiences, and that was a big failure on their part.

So basically, for an optimal experience, encourage yours to not be shy, actually listen to their complaints, encourage them (especially the eldest) to get involved in local youth club activities, whether it be football or football or whatever, and continue to sell it within reason of course, and yours should have a rootin' darn tootin'-ass time.