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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

388 replies

teulie · 31/12/2023 20:18

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 Blush

OP posts:
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16
Lifesd · 31/12/2023 21:20

You are not a wrong OP, yes there are negatives to Australia as there are anywhere but better healthcare, better infrastructure, cleaner, greener, and less populated and they get to strictly choose who they let in to the country. There is a lot to like.

IthinkIamAnAlien · 31/12/2023 21:28

Wherever anyone is based they'll be selling you a lifestyle

Ha, ha, ha, except the falling apart, shitty, dog eat dog UK that is. I've visited Australia, it's fabulous. As for thinking that Sydney is like anywhere else! FGS. Suggest you go there first!

OP you're still young, keep Australia on your radar, you've got years.

Soubriquet · 31/12/2023 21:32

It’s way too bloody hot in Aussie. Plus think of all the animals that actually want to kill you there. Least you don’t get many here

EasternStandard · 31/12/2023 21:37

IthinkIamAnAlien · 31/12/2023 21:28

Wherever anyone is based they'll be selling you a lifestyle

Ha, ha, ha, except the falling apart, shitty, dog eat dog UK that is. I've visited Australia, it's fabulous. As for thinking that Sydney is like anywhere else! FGS. Suggest you go there first!

OP you're still young, keep Australia on your radar, you've got years.

I’m glad you’ve visited. It is nice but any influencer feed will be selling a positive look, it’s how it works

And yes I know Aus well from living there, of course there’s pros, but obviously a city like London where I am now is attractive to many, including from o/s. Different things will appeal to different people.

Pieceofpurplesky · 31/12/2023 21:39

Great if you are young and/or single - you would have the same things if you were there now, just with heat

LadyGaGasPokerFace · 31/12/2023 21:43

I lived in Perth WA for two years. Glad we didn’t sell up as it was very expensive. Miles from anywhere, but on the occasions I went to Melbourne, I loved it and would’ve settled there given the chance, but dh work was in Perth.

Saggypants · 31/12/2023 21:52

ShitChristamasPresents · 31/12/2023 20:42

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 🫣🤯

Did you forget the oldest living culture in the world? Or is white peoples' culture the only one that matters?

While calling other people racist! I get you're just trying to make the OP feel better but... honestly.

Fourecks · 31/12/2023 21:54

I'm in Australia (hello from 2024!) It's pissing down raining at the moment where I am, if that makes you feel better. There are definitely good points about living here, but also drawbacks.

I did laugh at the poster who said there was nothing in Sydney you couldn't get in other places. I don't live in Sydney and wouldn't move there but it does have a lovely collection of beaches. Not just places like Bondi, but little suburban beaches on the harbour.

Maybe start following some influencers from where you live so you can see your own home in a new way?

ALongHardWinter · 31/12/2023 21:56

To my mind, Australia is a country that is determined to kill you,one way or another. Crocodiles,sharks,snakes, venomous spiders.... and Australian men seem to be a bunch of tossers

enchantedsquirrelwood · 31/12/2023 21:57

nameychangio675 · 31/12/2023 20:37

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

Quality of life is clearly better than in the UK, but I am not sure either the beaches or the climate are all that.

I don't like beaches and it's far too hot and getting hotter!

enchantedsquirrelwood · 31/12/2023 21:59

Lifesd · 31/12/2023 21:20

You are not a wrong OP, yes there are negatives to Australia as there are anywhere but better healthcare, better infrastructure, cleaner, greener, and less populated and they get to strictly choose who they let in to the country. There is a lot to like.

Greener, really? That isn't my impression at all!

Nonamesleft1 · 31/12/2023 22:01

nameychangio675 · 31/12/2023 20:37

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

My parents moved out of the city to a rural village so we could have an “amazing” childhood.

it wasn’t. They still think it was, growing up with animals, fresh air etc.

my cousins grew up in Australia. They all moved here asap.

LunaMay · 31/12/2023 22:14

Yay, first Australia bashing thread for 2024!

Home, where apparently we don't own air conditioners, heaters and random deadly animals are just walking the streets and in every pool of water.

I'm not even gonna touch the offensive comments about culture.

Now what's that other stereotype...the one about whinging?

EmpressSoleil · 31/12/2023 22:16

Fourecks · 31/12/2023 21:54

I'm in Australia (hello from 2024!) It's pissing down raining at the moment where I am, if that makes you feel better. There are definitely good points about living here, but also drawbacks.

I did laugh at the poster who said there was nothing in Sydney you couldn't get in other places. I don't live in Sydney and wouldn't move there but it does have a lovely collection of beaches. Not just places like Bondi, but little suburban beaches on the harbour.

Maybe start following some influencers from where you live so you can see your own home in a new way?

So you're telling me there's literally nowhere else in Europe where you could get the beaches you get in Sydney? Sorry I don't believe that for one minute.

LlynTegid · 31/12/2023 22:19

If you want a better lifestyle or at least avoid the impacts of the Johnson/Sunak years, you don't need to go to the other side of the world. Though options were restricted by the economic self harm act of 2016.

willWillSmithsmith · 31/12/2023 22:31

I spent a few weeks and Christmas in Australia once (in my late twenties) and honestly I didn’t like it (Christmas) that much. It just seemed all wrong, the fake snow on boiling hot days was weird. I went with a view to emigrating if I ‘fell in love’ with it. I didn’t and was very happy to come back home to the UK. Roll on a few decades and I do wonder sometimes if I’d prefer it now as the cold can really get to me but it’s too far from everything for me.

Pacificisolated · 31/12/2023 22:37

I cringe so much when English people start raving on about the wildlife trying to kill you in Australia. I have lived in Queensland half my life and have never been remotely threatened by the fauna. The plants and wildlife are beautiful and interesting.

The climate is far less depressing for me than in the UK but I think I was an unusual kid in that I felt miserable when we had more than a day or two of overcast weather. I like being outside and in nature or at the beach so it suits me.

When people refer to Australia as a ‘cultural wasteland’ what they really mean is that white culture is relatively recent. There is a long, rich aboriginal history and culture.

However we are definitely experiencing a housing crisis in our cities and populated regional areas. Our house value has increased more than 80% since we bought it 6 years ago but our wages are stagnating with the rising cost of living. Rentals are in such high demand but there are few protections for tenants. Social housing is far less accessible than in the UK so generally speaking it is now the preserve of the most dysfunctional people in society and of no help to run of the mill single mums, pensioners etc who are all squeezed in the private rental market.

willWillSmithsmith · 31/12/2023 22:37

ALongHardWinter · 31/12/2023 21:56

To my mind, Australia is a country that is determined to kill you,one way or another. Crocodiles,sharks,snakes, venomous spiders.... and Australian men seem to be a bunch of tossers

When I visited I had to be aware of the red back spider that had made its home in the ‘dunny’ and we had to get out the sea due to a shark warning. And don’t even get me started on the Aussie bf I had, I can still shudder about that thirty years on. (I’m sure there are lovely Aussie men around but he wasn’t one of them). I would actually like to go back for a re-visit but I doubt I ever will.

StaunchMomma · 31/12/2023 22:47

A sunny Christmas and an even more right-wing society than Britain is my idea of hell.

Also, stop believing what you see on Insta.

User176386233 · 31/12/2023 22:58

Used to live there. Racist, sexist, homophobic people everywhere. Dull, with no sense of humour. Not much to do apart from go fishing, go to the beach, go swimming, BBQs. Expensive. Takes you forever to get anywhere. Bonkers climate: bushfires, boiling hot then floods.

Pros: good pies. Looks good in photos.

Reader1303 · 31/12/2023 23:08

ShitChristamasPresents · 31/12/2023 20:42

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 🫣🤯

Yeah, let's totally ignore the 65 000 years of human history because there aren't big buildings to look at.

ShitChristamasPresents · 31/12/2023 23:12

@Saggypants @Pacificisolated
”When people refer to Australia as a ‘cultural wasteland’ what they really mean is that whiteculture is relatively recent. There is a long, rich aboriginal history and culture.”

You are of course right. However, my experience of aboriginal culture in Australia was marred by racism.

I think as Europeans we are spoilt by having so many different cultures within a few hours flying distance. I live in a major city in the UK and it’s truly diverse with people from all over the globe. Australia wasn’t close to that in terms of culture (or respect for other cultures) in my experience.

Bestyearever2024 · 31/12/2023 23:14

User176386233 · 31/12/2023 22:58

Used to live there. Racist, sexist, homophobic people everywhere. Dull, with no sense of humour. Not much to do apart from go fishing, go to the beach, go swimming, BBQs. Expensive. Takes you forever to get anywhere. Bonkers climate: bushfires, boiling hot then floods.

Pros: good pies. Looks good in photos.

Edited

I'd agree with this. Awful housing too.

ShitChristamasPresents · 31/12/2023 23:14

@Reader1303 But aboriginal culture is largely ignored or white washed by much of Australia. That’s rather the point I’m making. The ancient history of the country is not something that’s well represented.

Mantling · 31/12/2023 23:16

OP, in the nicest possible way, no one forced you to be married with two children and a ‘boring job’ in your twenties, regardless of where you live. Those were your choices. They’re not tied to geography. When I was in my twenties I was living in a commune in the US, then did a postgraduate degree in Oxford, then I lived for a season by myself on an otherwise uninhabited island. I was having a ball. I was also living on small change and fresh air.

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