to consider moving to France with 2 young children?

[veridique]

I’m a single parent, currently living in the South East of England, with 2 young DC (5 and 2).

I am currently struggling to pay back a credit card debt I got into before ending my relationship (£30K). I bought a house several years ago and now there is around £30K equity in it.

I am currently a remote worker.

I am considering selling the house to pay off the debt and moving to France because the rent will be cheaper, I think I will have a better standard of living and I like France.

But, neither of my children speak French and are settled in School and nursery here.

AIBU to consider this? Would they enjoy it or am I uprooting them to fix my own problems? Not sure if this is a good idea or the stress of being in debt is making me unreasonable.

(some details changed as otherwise too outing).

Your children are young enough that they will adapt fairly well, so I would not worry about that.
Other than that, do you speak French? In which city would you consider moving?

Do it, especially if you'll have the fallback of coming back. 5 and 2 are great ages for immersion language learning and even if you only stay for a few years, if you can keep their french up when you get back they'll have a valuable marketable skill for life.

can you speak french!! If you can speak french very well yes I would consider it - your dc will pick it up in NO TIME and that will be fabulous for them later on.

I think their over all well being includes ease for you - without stress of a huge debt.

so from that point of view a good move, other major things to consider are do you have friends, family over there?

I would ...if you are certain you can earn a living and get sorted with a place to rent etc .
Learn the language and your DC are young enough to adapt I'd say
You can always come back to UK if it doesn't work out ~ one thought is your family not seeing the DC as much maybe and if there is an ex P around who might not agree with moving the DC abroad

YANBU to think that two such young children will learn French very rapidly. However, there are a lot of things to consider. For example:

Do you speak French?
Do you currently have any support where you live now (family, friends)? If so, what will happen when your DC are too ill to go to school and you have to work?
Do the DC have any kind of relationship with their father at all? If so, a) he may object to your moving, and b) you would be extremely unreasonable to take them away from him anyway.
What would happen if you lost your job? Would you be able to find another job working remotely, or in the area of France where you are planning to live?

Just some things to think about. Good luck.

As a serial country-mover, I'm never against people having a go at living in a different culture, because it's such an adventure and a unique learning experience. But...

I live in France and while the rent might be cheaper in some places (not Paris), the cost of living can be high. Things like groceries, electricity, insurances, internet etc are higher than the UK. You'd also have to think about healthcare costs - depending on your set up you might get reciprocal cover on an S1, but you'd still likely have to pay into a mutuelle (top up insurance).

have you thought about the tax situation? I assume you'd continue to pay as a UK citizen under the reciprocal deal, but you might need to factor in accountancy fees to make sure you're compliant.

If you're remote working and living rurally, then you'd have to be careful about broadband speeds - in the house before this one, we had to pay to install satellite broadband as the speed was like 90's dial up.

I think the last thing to consider is that set up costs can be quite high - sorting out things like re-registering your car or getting a new one, rental deposits, moving costs etc can mount up, so you'd need a buffer.

Good luck though! Lots to organise, but it's all possible.

In answer to some of the questions: My French is intermediate I’d say. I can understanding people pretty well but make grammatical errors.

I have no support here really, so kids are with me at home if ill.

Partner is in contact and not that keen on this plan, which is understandable.

If I lost my job I would be looking into another remote one. Or maybe looking into teaching English (I have the CELTA qualification).

Thanks for the replies: really helpful and you’ve raised some things I hadn’t thought about, like healthcare!

obviously if your their father is not keen you need to get him on board or else he can go to court to stop the move, how are you going to make sure they maintain contact with their father as you will need to facilitate it and almost certainly pay for it. can you/ will you be able to afford this? because unless you can and can prove you can a court will not let you move it will not be up to their father to travel to france though he may

your children will easily learn french at 2 and 5 but you will need to improve yours

Go for it OP.

I'm planning on making a move to France when I finish my degree. DD will be 3 years old.

Where about a were you thinking of moving to?

you also need to think about Brexit - at the moment you can move to France and as long as you are exercising freedom of movement rights (eg working) you will be able to live there and after 5 years will acquire permanent residence. However after the UK leaves the EU this will stop. we don't know what the transitional arrangements will be for eu nationals in the UK or for uk national in the EU.

I agree with Pooch.
If your main reason for doing this is to clear the debt, then I'd say stay put. You don't mention where in the UK, are house prices continuing to rise in your area. If so then cold you buy a house there again in a couple of years if you wanted to come back.
With brexit your financial position may change in France, they may charge more taxes or just make it harder for non EU people living there.

It will cost £££ to move. Could you remortgage to release some equity for pay off your card. Could you do this and then let out your house in the UK, thus keeping a foot on the ladder. If in a few years you could either come back or sell to buy a place in France if you were happy and settled there etc.
Where in France do you have in mind? If you would really like to move there for an adventure and for the kids to learn French, do it. Maybe you could find a way to earn extra money over there. Teaching English perhaps.

It wouldn't harm to get brushing up on your skills with something like DuoLingo. Also there are groups you can join on Skype of people wishing to converse with other learners via video chat - that's an ideal way to improve your conversation skills. DH uses both DL and Skype in this way and can verify that it works very well.

I would nut worry about Brexit for now. Silly to let something completely unknown dictate your choices. Your french sounds adequate for teaching English and general life so while brushing up would be helpful I don't know that you would desperately need it.

I would try very hard NOT to sell the house to pay back the CC debt.

Can you increase your income? Borrow a bit more against the house to pay down some of the debt? Take in a lodger?

can you manage without the benefits - CTC and WTC (and child benefit) if you move abroad? Your OP did not explain whether you were in receipt of any benefits that are not transferable when you move abroad.