To think the people on Wanted Down Under have unrealistic expectations?

[CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook]

Just watching this morning, as have a late shift. It's a 'revisted' episode so idea when it first aired. Mum has a small budget of £150,000 but wants a 'dream home' in Australia. First apartment too small, as is the second. You only have a budget of £150,000!! Eventually last house hits all the right notes, but is £60,000 overbudget. So she'll just work harder.

Planning to do Social Work, so goes to an experience day. The SW's are dealing with the case of an indigenous Aboriginal family. They work with a lot of indigenous families and their customs. Does she know anything about the Aboriginal people? No. Not done any research So what view of Australia does she have?

Everytime I watch this program the participants seem to have massive unrealistic expectations. AIBU to think they should at least know something about the Aboriginal people if they plan to move there?

I agree. They loved going kayaking today could they not try that at home. And the mum wanted them all in a room together taking. Er just make them do that at home!!

I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of life in Australia -probably fueled by watching tv programmes like home and away when they were teenagers - and think they're going to spend most of their time on the beach, surfing and having barbecues with good friends.

I knew someone whose daughter and family moved there, admittedly it was some years ago so things might have chanced, but they were convinced they would be able to sell their ok suburban home here and buy some sort of palace in a prosperous suburb in OZ.

They were pretty pissed off to discover that actually, all they were able to afford was more or less identical to the house they'd left behind.

And apparently the cost of living isn't as low as a lot of people seem to think.

What always makes me laugh on WDU is where they show the families back in the UK crying at the thought of their children emigrating and then the couple hold up AUSTRALIA! flags. It must cause them so much trouble.

I remember a woman I worked with who went out there with her family - they had an agreement that if they didn't like it after a couple of years, they'd return. She and the kids loved it. Her husband wanted to come home to his awful mother. She had to come back. It was obvious their marriage wasn't going to last and that she wouldn't be able to leave the country with their children again. He was the one who'd wanted to go in the first place, too.

On the one today, she looked at the financial breakdown of expenses and shopping and discovered she'd be out of pocket by £40 or so each week, but then decided that because the rice was cheap, they'd be fine cause they would eat more rice each week and she'd use her savings!

I think a lot of them just go for a free holiday

I haven't watched it for ages, but often used to think (apart from unrealistic expectations re housing/cost of living) that the couple had vague problems in their marriage, which they thought would magically disappear if only it was hot all the time and they could have barbecues 3 times a week.

They could be selected for ignorance. Or for conflict (second spouse trying to separate DP from children of previous relationship so the focus is entirely on them and any children of current relationship).

I think a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of life in Australia -probably fueled by watching tv programmes like home and away when they were teenagers - and think they're going to spend most of their time on the beach, surfing and having barbecues with good friends. I knew someone whose daughter and family moved there, admittedly it was some years ago so things might have chanced, but they were convinced they would be able to sell their ok suburban home here and buy some sort of palace in a prosperous suburb in OZ.
They were pretty pissed off to discover that actually, all they were able to afford was more or less identical to the house they'd left behind. And apparently the cost of living isn't as low as a lot of people seem to think
This ^
They do zip research, and end up in some crap-hole outer outer suburb of Melbourne/Sydney I won't name, miles from the beach. And public transport and decent civic amenities.

Might add, someone I know has gone for just a year because of her dh's posting. After the first day or two she gaily took her young children to the nearby beach - it was very hot - only to have some bloke run up yelling, 'Don't go in the water!!! Stingers!!'

Piffle my parents did EXACTLY this to me. Not only did they leave the moment I started university but they made sure to move house three times during my final A Level year. Maybe they were hoping I’d bugger them up and not get my uni place and come with them after all. I didn’t, and I stayed.
It has wrecked our relationship though, and they have next to no relationship with my DC or my siblings’ DCs.
I will never ever understand why they did it. They can only ever think of the good weather as the reason they wouldn’t come back; but I suspect that they repeated the same mistakes they made in the UK over in Aus and have subsequently made it impossible for them to return financially.
I always think there is a lot of truth in that saying: whenever you go, there you are.

Yes I think so. It's a well known fact that about 50% of UK expats find they don't really like it so much there, or it isn't working or them and they return to live in UK. The lifestyle does look fabulous, but the grass isn't always greener...

It's ridiculous and the shows are often very old so they represent outdated property prices.
We moved to Australia a few years ago and after a few years came back as it is hellish expensive and we could never get a "like for like" house there. People have a false idea of Australians and their work ethic too. They work very long hours IME. People who think they will go there just to have an endless summer are deluded. Its an amazing and wonderful place but its real life, work and $.
The sob story thing is a crock, the families have been away for less than a week when they do those - how ridiculous!
Oh and it annoys me and many other Australians just how "butt ugly" the houses they show are!!! No way are those brick shit houses representative!!

Oh yes, and poor Brendan broke my heart too. I wonder where that family is today.

I would bullshit it to try and get a free holiday but even if it was free i don't think i could be arsed with a 24 hour flight.

I am going to have to put this on my sky planner

There was a holiday one when a couple wanted to move to Spain as had holidayed there for years and had never tasted olive oil or heard of Tapas!

I remember the original version in 2003-2004, it was called "Get a New Life" where they went to a different country each week including France, Spain, Sweden, Romania, Costa Rica etc etc. Most had vague plans of starting businesses or working but mostly without actually speaking the local language!

I often wonder how many are still there

Mmm. My take on this mornings family was that the mum was being courageous (but sadly fanciful and poorly researched) in that she was trying to step-change her and her kids lifelong prospects. There's no shame in that and I admire her ambition. But I think she was hopelessly unrealistic from the off. She was expecting the oldest DD to sort of assume a young adult role, be involved in financial stuff etc....and I just don't think that would be fair. There was also talk of the 15 year old getting a job....again fanciful and unfair.
What might have come out of it though would be the planting of a future seed of a drea in the minds of the younger ones....so maybe for them one day it would work.

They are usually aghast at the house prices in Oz but really angry at the "low" valuation for their UK home.

Often the houses they are taken to see are a long commute to the local centre where they would actually have to work . Childcare etc is never discussed nor how some parts of Oz are a lot hotter than others and some places are actually really expensive (usually the cities with lots of job opportuities just like UK!)

They always have "amazing families" and "amazing family support" in the Uk, sibling their best mate, loads of friends etc but they want to move away "to have a better life"

I think the episodes where they are going to leave dc behind (from an earlier relationship) are so cruel.

Rational, reasonable people don't a) often apply to be on telly and b) make good telly.

I have a chum who has worked on a couple of these types of show (and a well known 'singing competition') and anyone reasonable without a juicy back story applying tends to get filed in the 'no' section - a tray next to the shredder at one place.

Funny. People that enter and stay in the UK on the same basis are often labelled as "economic migrants".....yet when it's a Brit doing it, it's all romanticised!

Knew poor Brendon would get a mention-beyond awful manipulation 😮 anyone know what happened?!

Actually just had a quick check on fb poor Brendon still married and living in oz :(

There is nothing shittier than living in a country because your partner either pushes you to or cant cope in the one you want to be in. :(

I did like that mum this morning though. Pregnant at 16, suffered DV, married and 2 more kids by 23, divorced and put herself through college to become a Social Worker. Good for her. The bit where she said she looked at her baby in a bouncer and thought, "Oh my God I don't want this for her, she'll hate me for it", made me cry a little. .
I could absolutely see her heart was in the right place, she wanted better for her kids, she talked of them going to university etc. I think she had just let her dreams run away with themselves further and further from reality.
Hopefully she is now happier and turning her life around a bit again now settled back home.

I looked Brendan up too. They live in Perth now 😡