uprooting teenage kids and moving to oz???

willa25

Can anyone give me advice on this,
we are seriously considering moving the family to australia next year,but we have a teenage son and i dont know if it is a good move or not.Taking him out of school away from his friends. I dont know how he would settle into school out there.would love to hear from someone in a similar situation who has made the move,was it good or bad decision??

sdanseo

Given I was a teenager not 5 years ago, my first question is have you talked to him about it? :rolleyes:

If he's in favour, which I very much doubt, then fire away. If he's not, then it's nothing short of unfair to move to a society which is so different - there's too much adjusting. Leave it 5 years and then he can make his own choice whether to stay or go.

I'm not a parent, nor from Australia...but just a little insight from his point of view.

Bigus

I know one family that did it 4 years ago with four children, seems successful now after much hardship, except eldest fella is back on his own prob 18 now

Just be clear are you chasing money or quality of life ? they are very different things. How bad is it here for you , and how much, if any better would it be there ?

What about your parents ?

willa25

have spoken to him about it and his concern is trying to settle in school. he is sociable and big into sport so i think he would be fine in that sense.
my husband is in his 40's so its next year or never because after 45 its unlikely he would get a visa. money is part of the reason but lifestyle and weather are main reason. west of ireland can be very depressing in winter, and winters are getting worse.and work is scarce in construction industry.
only one parent alive and honestly,as heartless as it may sound, i dont think i should put my life on hold for that. i did that for long enough. its something we have always wanted to do but until last year things were good enough not to think about emmigrating.:)

Ozeire

willa25 wrote: »

Can anyone give me advice on this,
we are seriously considering moving the family to australia next year,but we have a teenage son and i dont know if it is a good move or not.Taking him out of school away from his friends. I dont know how he would settle into school out there.would love to hear from someone in a similar situation who has made the move,was it good or bad decision??

What ages are your kids and is your husband on the skills in demand list. The visa application process is long and expensive .

Only haven one small one and my wife being Aussie it wasn't a massive problem for us to move. Have noticed that childcare here is alot more expensive. Plus at the moment houses are expensive too but are rumors they are about to drop.

Have you or your husband ever visited here before. It'll be hard at first likely both of you will have to work unless u have money saved. It's not easy but I love it.

Stinicker

Go for it, force them to go, they might not like it when it comes to it but in the long run they will thank you for it, there is no future in Ireland for the majority of young people and in another decade or two Irish people will be a minority in our own country in a land of old greying people without the majority of the young and middle aged. I don't know if many people realise just how f&*'ed Ireland truly is. My own father had the same opportunity when I was a baby having qualifed for a US Green Card and oh how i'd love to be living there now and have avoided all the calamity that went down here.

Basically OP if your kids are under 18 you are responsible for them and if your plans involve moving to Oz take them with you where at least they will have the benefit of better chances in life with a nice climate and this is a long term decision for ye that will hopefully work out for the better in the long term.

sponge_bob

we are in the middle of a visa application atm. we have 3 kids 8, 10 and 12 all will be a year older by the time we make the move. the 2 youngest kids don't seem to bothered about it, they think its just a big adventure the eldest is a bit more skeptical and in the no camp as regards the move.

LOL we think we may get the visa late this year or early next year but we may not be in a situation to move for about 18-24mths so its looking like a validation trip will be needed, and the eldest refuses to go on that incase its a trick and we won't come home.

anyhow FWIW, i think you have to take kids with a grain of salt, they are set in their own ways and their own comfort zones, with their own circle of friends, school, routine and basically there life is sorted from their point of view so why change it. in our situation i think she will give in fairly easy and once they are out there they will make new friends and start to develop their own routine allover again.
my brother moved to perth about 3 years ago with wife and 3 kids he says it took about 6mths for the kids to settle in but after that they were fine.
however you have to gauge the amt of resistence that they have to the idea of moving, and if you were to put it on a scale of 1-10 where would it be, i would say our eldest is about a 6-7ish on that scale but if she was at 9 or 10 i dont think we would even bother trying to force her to go. i think you also have to be prepared to come home if things arn't working out and it is just leading to constant fighting and reports coming home from school and stuff like that.