I'm definitely being unreasonable! Comparing lives with Australians!

[teulie]

Watched a lot of Love Island Australia and MAFS Australia this year and follow a lot of the people from it now. Seeing all their stories all year and today for NYE, the sunshine, the beaches, the groups of girls all just having the best time being young in such a beautiful country with the best sort of lifestyle and it makes me feel sad!

I'm in my late twenties married with two kids, boring job, normal family life style but I look and think god could I of done that? Could life of been like that?

One of my old friends is currently in Australia so I'm seeing their insta stories all day everyday and it's made the pining worse than ever, I've never even been there and I find myself just wishing I could do life again and be born there

The grass is always greener…

This.

My Aunty and uncle lived in Oz for a while. Their brief analysis of their time there:

• Expensive
• More bigotry, a bit like being in the UK 30 years ago
• ugly furniture

I have also decided from watching MAFSAU that Australian men are mostly tattooed belligerent tossers with no emotional availability but I may be generalising there

I spent NYE in Australia once. It was 40 degrees and I was nowhere near a beach. Maybe I was doing it wrong...

Look on the bright side. No 5 metre man-eating crocs, lethal venomous snakes or funnel web spiders here in Britain.

Lived there for a while. It’s nice when you’re 20, footloose and fancy free but I wouldn’t go back there to live. I found it a bit of a cultural wasteland. Rampant racism too.

Well first of all.. you’re following influencers, of course theirs lives on Instagram are going to look all wonderful and perfect! Do you follow any uk influencer, because they’ll be the same. Secondly I’ve lived in Sydney a couple of years and found out that yes the grass is always greener.. You still have to work living there, it’s mega expensive and actually rains quite a lot. I have a much better work life balance back in the uk. You won’t suddenly become an influencer and spend your life on the beach if you move to aus.

I lived in Australia for the first 21 years of my life.

Its a long way from anywhere else.

It is a better life with the beaches and the climate. My children have an amazing childhood.

I read this article on the BBC yesterday about the realities of life in Australia for young people...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67723760

Honestly, Australia is great but it’s incredibly expensive, racism is rife and out of the major cities it’s a cultural wasteland (even Sydney and Melbourne don’t compare in any way to London, Paris, Rome etc).

I’ve lived there. Great for a few years. But no amount of beach life makes up for the lack of culture, diversity and family that we have here in the UK. Most of my Australian friends have lived overseas for large chunks of their adult life. They are in the minority and the small mind attitude of many Australians is 🫣🤯

Like anywhere there are good points and bad points. I wouldn't cope with the heat there in summer now. I did live there for a while in my 20's and 40 degrees with no aircon is not something I would want to repeat. The house was freezing at night in winter too. All the drought and fires sound not particularly fun. I would love to go back for a visit, but never to live.

Yanbu for comparing your life with an influencer. That is their whole purpose, to make you think their life is better than yours.

Yeah, and as others have said, there are plenty of UK influencers styling Christmas in Cotswold cottages/central London etc. Most of us don’t really live like that. Most of the influencers don’t really live like that!

And yes, the heat! And the chill in winter (most houses don’t have central heating for obvious reasons, but on the chilly nights June-August it really is chilly!)

Imagine one day you are freezing,like sleeping in coats in bed ( because Aussies don't do central heating and sydney gets frost in winter) and the next, your shoes are melting on the pavement. It's Essex but on the opposite side of the world. Major attractions include a giant plastic mango , eight hours drive from sydney. Racism, homophobia and looking ten years older than you are cos that heat shrinks white people like prunes. Not to mention all the fauna that's trying to kill you. Feel lucky you gave it a swerve and enjoy the cool weather. I lived there for a year. .my friends who stayed.....well I can say... the years have not been kind, even with daily factor 50.

I feel disloyal and need to point out that Sydney has a very special place in my heart. But I love being a visitor much more than a resident. For every cool and glamorous place in Sydney you can think of there are many more very uncool places (especially the further west you go).

The grass is greenest where it's watered.

Pretty much this. Where ever anyone is based they’ll be selling you a lifestyle

Have you read about the housing crisis in Australia?

Meh, I watched aus mafs and didn't think Sydney looked that great! A nice enough city but nothing you can't get anywhere else and Australia is way too far from anywhere else to be somewhere I'd want to live. Also crazy expensive.

If you want a bit of "glamour" have a weekend in Paris or Berlin or one of the many interesting cities we can reach from the UK. Or if you want sun and sand, plenty of those options too.

Recognise how lucky we are to live within reach of so many interesting places. A large majority of aussies never get to see outside of Australia and even internal flights cost a bomb I've heard.

I love Australia; travelled there in my youth and have visited friends a few times in my adult life. But would I want to live there? Not sure. We have friends in Perth and their socials always look amazing. To be honest, it feels at times like they're trying too hard to make it look like they're 'living the good life'. When they came home recently and talked about the day to day drudgery of life and challenges with the weather (extreme heat and extreme cold that they're not prepared for), I felt grateful to be here.

Sunshine and golden beaches always look fantastic but look behind the facade and there will be all the same social issues as most other places around the world. Homelessness, drug issues, domestic violence, unemployment and the rest.
The grass is very often not greener on the other side x

Instagram isn't real life.
I have relatives in Oz (and have been there). I couldn't cope with:

• Searing heat
• Bush fires
• Innocuous-looking critters that can kill you
• Sharks, box jellyfish & saltwater crocodiles that stop you swimming safely
• Racism & sexism
• Being a long way from European culture

i loved australia the 3 weeks i was there and as much as id move there like a shot the reality hits that its so far away from the rest of the world and expensive

Australian here - yes the beaches can be great, but if you have any Celtic heritage, you need to be careful in the sun (melanoma risk is very high) and things like jellyfish in the water.
TBH, while I am grateful to live here, I lived in Ireland for a while and I miss White Christmases, M & S, cobble stone streets, Phoenix park, so it runs both ways!

Everything on social media is a lie.

It’s designed to hook your attention and use that attention to obtain revenue from advertisers.

Stop allowing yourself to be brainwashed into dissatisfaction.