Moved back to UK, now want to move back!

[jdsmummy]

After my husband lost his job in Feb 09 we decided to move back to the UK.

It was a hard desision to make and after our second ds was born in May 09 and still no job for hubby we moved back in the July.

I was gutted at first but seeing friends and family was great and everyone got to meet the new baby and my sister had her first baby in October so I got to meet my niece.

7 months on and we arent completely happy. I thought the cold would be a welcome relief after the heat in Oz but have not enjoyed it. The snow was great but after a week Id had enough of the stuff.

My husband is still out of work and has now been offered a job by a friend who has moved from Melbourne to Brissy.

We really dont know what to do. Its great having friends and family round the corner, altho the ILs live in france and my dad lives in spain, but cant help feeling the boys will have a better life there. As anyone else moved then moved back again? How do you decide between the life you can have for your kids and having friends and family round.

[Manxie]

Hi

I am an expat living in Adelaide. I have to say that I am very settled here in Oz so probably I am not going to be much use to you, lol!

How long were you in Oz before you made the move back to the UK?

I have found that it takes at least a year probably more realisticly two to settle in somewhere although sometimes you are lucky to slot straight in. We first moved out to Melbourne and I loved it, made a really good friend and had a fantastic workplace. DH however couldnt find work and we had to move to Adelaide after six months. It took probably four years, until my dd1 was born for me to finally feel happy here. I have now developed a great network of friends and love the ease of my life here. I returned to the UK in October and am now confident that I will never return to live there.

I can understand the conflict though and feel really sad that my children miss out on cousins, grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Its a really hard decision especially as I can imagine it must be costing you a fortune with each move. I'm sorry I dont have any constructive advice

[PippaG]

Hi, not sure I'll be much use to you either as I'm also an expat in Adelaide!

I know that it is pretty common to move back to the UK and then want to return to Oz. I've often said that DH that if we did go back to the UK there would always be part of us that would want to be in Oz.

For us, although we do miss family and friends, and I do feel sad that DS won't have his grandparents around him all the time, we both feel that he will have so many more opportunities over here, and a better life.

Good luck, I'm sure it won't be an easy decision.

[Pixie]

I'm in the UK I lived in Sydney for 10 years, we moved back 3 years ago. My husband is Aussie. HE wanted to come to the UK to further his career and he has. Lifes been good to us. We have no immediate plans to return. Mainly due to his career and due to the fact we like having Europe on our doorstep! And quite frankly while the lifestyle outdoors might be better there is little difference in countries, the people are nicer in Aus that's a given lol but it's hard to weigh up the pro's and con's it's so individual. For us being here is better for us right now

[jdsmummy]

Thank you all for your replies.
We were in Oz for 18 months and I think we should have stuck it out longer even if the end result was us moving back, but with no jobs, a new baby and living off our savings I think we rushed into going back.

My DHs job offer seems good but it would be like starting again as we need to move north Brissy where as we were south Brissy before. ( not a huge move I know but would be a good hour from where we were)

I knew I would miss Oz but I really miss alot and maybe things just seem worse because hubby has no job and its winter but cant shake this feeling of wanting to come back, just want to make the move for the right reasons.