Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Or is 'wanted down under' one of the worst programmes of all time?

79 replies

Coffeeisnecessary · 27/02/2019 11:14

All the pressure on one person in the family who doesn't want to go, the heartfelt messages from family all crying, leaving elderly family, giving up established businesses, it's all just so uncomfortable. Maybe I'm not adventurous enough but I can't imagine giving up everything just because things look nice and sunny on neighbours. Aibu?

OP posts:
Original poster
Coffeeisnecessary · 27/02/2019 11:44

I'm glad I'm not the only one!!

OP posts:
MrsJayy · 27/02/2019 11:44

They are renting they probably have not been in the country long enough to buy/get a mortgage. My dog wouldn't cope with the move either 27 hours in a crate on a plane

MrsBobDylan · 27/02/2019 11:45

Yeah, yesterday's revisited moved to Oz six years ago, leaving his son behind and are now renting having owned a property in the uk.

Both of them had brothers who had really sadly died since they emigrated and their two kids voted unsure and uk when they did the flipping card thing at the end. And that was after living in Oz for 6 years! They said they missed their uk family.

I couldn't work out how it was better.

TheWaiting · 27/02/2019 11:47

Yes, why do those in a tiny terraced house look shocked when they cannot afford a 4bed detached with a pool???

Gth1234 · 27/02/2019 11:48

Wanted down Under/New Home in Wherever

The difference with Phil and Kirstie's show is that someone buys the effing houses. The other shows are just boring travelogues.

Thehop · 27/02/2019 11:51

We’re planning on emigrating to Spain in around 4 years and have young children so I don’t watch it 😂

CoffeeCakePlease · 27/02/2019 11:54

ILoveMaxiBondi - yes it seems they're renting for now.

Interesting that voice over at the beginning of the show says data shows lots of Brits who move to Australia end up returning; maybe this is largely made up of the backpacking / younger cohorts?

Wallsbangers · 27/02/2019 11:55

It's so ridiculous but like Homes under the Hammer, once you start watching you just can't stop!

I've never seen one where they moved though.

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 11:56

I’m not so moved by the extended family ones (grandparents, parents, uncles, cousins etc) but i truly hate the ones where teens are being left behind. Sometimes it’s teens of the same family or it’s stepchildren. Those are heartbreaking. Mum and Dad or parent and stepparent + the teens young siblings all jetting off for this wonderful ‘new start’ Sad, leaving a sixteen year old kid back home.

When it’s a stepparent scenario, they often say ‘we’ve given [teenager] the option to come with us’ but they seem to totally disregard what that means. Leaving their other parent (and any other family ties- loved stepparent, siblings?) for (at best) annual visits, leaving their friends, their school/college, their social and support network. Huge, distressing upheaval. But if they choose to stay at home, they loose their other parent and the family ties connected to them. It’s so bloody selfish.
L

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 11:57

Sorry for random letter on the end there Hmm

ILoveMaxiBondi · 27/02/2019 11:57

I wonder how long they have to live there to be eligible for a mortgage. Also, do they take into account all the money wasted on rent for however many months or years when they work out the budget? Having to rent for 12 or 24 months would put a serious dent in your cash available for buying.

ILoveMaxiBondi · 27/02/2019 11:59

There was one I saw a few weeks ago where it was parent and step parent and 4 kids moving. But dad was still really involved in DCs lives and I thought that was a really horrible situation.

MrsJayy · 27/02/2019 12:00

There was a revisited last week where the kids had to leave their Dad behind the girl looked really sad. One of the mums said she will be fine her dad gave his blessing I just thought it was really dismissive and a bit heartless.

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 12:00

*lose their other parent

WowserBowser · 27/02/2019 12:01

Yes! I say this every time I watch it. It makes me feel a bit miserable. And not in a jealous kind of way.

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 12:02

Exactly Max, it just seems really shitty. Like a real fuck you to the kid left behind. Even more so if the child/young person is a child of a previous relationship.

trancepants · 27/02/2019 12:02

I've only seen one episode but in it the wife was mad to move to New Zealand as she had lived there previously. She was utterly obsessed. On the visit, houses in their budget were all horrible but one that was about £70k over budget was what she wanted. She and her husband had both retrained to qualify for new jobs neither had ever worked in. So when they worked out their opposing budgets, it was for potential new salaries in the areas they had qualified for versus their previous salaries. Which was total BS as the odds of them both getting work in the new industries were no higher in New Zealand than in the UK.

What apparently swayed the husband though was the amazing lifestyle they could have in NZ that he experienced when the family went on a trip to ..................a petting zoo where his two young kids got to play in a sand pit! Couldn't do that in England. No sir!

Like seriously. Stay in England, apply for the better jobs you're now qualified for and sell the suburban semi, add £60k to your budget and get the very normal bungalow with a bigger garden that they don't only have in NZ. Then on the weekends, visit one of the 6000 petting zoos and/or playgrounds in England. With the added bonus of allowing your children to maintain their relationships with their loving grandparents.

It was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Yes people who emigrate can have better lives and it is of course in many circumstances a very valid option. But everything this couple wanted was more available to them at home than it was on the other side of the world. And they made the decision to move based on complete and utter pie in the sky.

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 12:05

Especially when so many of the families are citing we want more quality family time as a reason for moving. Talk about twisting the knife.

BartonHollow · 27/02/2019 12:05

I saw an Australian MNr say once that she showed Wanted Down Under to actual Australians and they all fell about laughing

GruciusMalfoy · 27/02/2019 12:07

I know of someone who moved to Australia and left her 13yo behind with her father, taking the other kids with her. I try and be understanding of people's differences, but I struggle with this sort of scenario.

EntirelyAnonymised · 27/02/2019 12:10

Yeah, it’s nuts trance. I saw one recently where the woman was training to be a primary school teacher and the DH was unqualified but was thinking about training to become a paramedic. So what they do? Base their income on what they’d both be earning as qualified professionals. Totally fucking batshit.

SpanielEars070 · 27/02/2019 12:13

It's very formulaic and designed to tug at the heartstrings.

I prefer the follow ups, as they seem a bit more real than the people who just go for a weeks free holiday or think they can buy a 5 bed mansion with a pool for £150k............

GiantButtonsAreMyFave · 27/02/2019 12:15

Yeah it makes me chuckle a lot, they go there basically for a holiday so they spend the entire time together doing nice things, you know like you do on holiday. Unless you can afford to retire at 35 your working life there is not going to be like that!

The one that got me was when a woman who was a single parent with 3/4 children living in a modest house here was looking around houses out there. Her budget was small, she was anticipating a dream mansion and they showed her around 3 ok, modest houses. The entire time she just kept saying “oh no this isn’t the dream, I’m not moving for this, it’s rubbish”! She also thought she could just work part time there and make a living, buy a dream house, it was a shock when she found out she couldn’t?! I mean are people really that naive, do they not look at what their budget might buy them etc?

Oh and the family videos are just ridiculous, I hate it when they make their children sit through it, it’s just cruel!

Itsnotme123 · 27/02/2019 12:28

I’ve moved and upsticks before and left everything behind . But that programme It’s too repetitive for me. I get bored easily 😂

eastwestnorth · 27/02/2019 12:32

I'm amused at the ones where they're moving for more family time, but the woman ends up working full-time instead of part-time to be able to afford the house with the walk-in wardrobe.

I do remember one family years ago who decided they could make adjustments to their lives in England to enable the family time etc they were looking for. Seemed more sensible than most.