Moving back now to UK from Aus - are we mad?

[Beautifulthief]

Hi Mums,

I would really appreciate your help to get some perspective on our decision to move back home to time UK after being overseas for 17 years. We left NZ last year, when we lost our jobs to C and returned back to Australia where my husband is from. I pushed to return to his home town, which is lovely and on the beach, but hubbie was very much against due to nightmare wife and husband of his parents who are divorced. We have struggled with drama after drama with his family ( 'I told you so' comes to mind ) and it has been harder than we anticipated to get his new business off the ground. Our daughter who is 7 is struggling to make friends - people here tend to have been hete their whole lives, so we are a bit of an anomaly. It has left us seriously wondering, maybe it is just time to come back to the UK. I miss my family dearly and if there is one thing Covid has taught us is how fragile life is. My Dad turns 80 next year and I feel this pull to be back around my family during my parents' twilight hears. My husband is all for it...

My main concern is whether the UK is still a good place to be after all the battering from Covid and lockdown. Some Aussie friends in London said everyone is very down and tired ( unsurprisingly). But I appreciate that is a micro view. Is there a sense of now getting back to some normality though? We are a little bit sheltered here from it all... We are hoping to move close to Bath. I only see the UK, my old home, 'hurting' from reading the papers. Is it still a good place to be?

Thank you SO much Mums. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Come home and don't waste any time. With elderly parents things can change very quickly, I wouldn't wait until March.

I think it depends on your perspective. It's a constant talking point and not far from my mind personally. For me though, I'm continuing to work in two jobs (tougher than before though due to bubbles, constant cleaning, lack of money to employ more staff). I'm conscious there might be a time when I'll have to isolate through contact, but that hasn't happened at all since covid, and I've worked throughout. As things stand right now, I can do everything I personally want to - we've had a UK holiday, I can go to the pub, go shopping, on a day trip, can see friends - admittedly we all seem happy to be outside even though mixing indoors is allowed. It'll affect others more as some have family abroad, have lost their jobs, they enjoy and attend large sporting events/concerts (although the latter may be possible soon) or for those who really have to work as in low paid jobs, there's the risk of having to take time off if a school bubble breaks and your child has to isolate.

I live in the UK and my family in another country. I would move back like a shot if I could just to be near my family as we're very close-knit and they would be such a positive part of my daughter's life. It's not the same trying to have a relationship over skype for years on end.

The UK isn't perfect, but if you think you can work out the job stuff, I think being near your family (who are elderly and it sounds like would be more of a pleasure to be around than your H's family) would be worth it.

Oh it's so hard isn't it?! I'm in aus - moved here in 06 - and I often wonder about moving back to England. A big thing for me is house prices - for my spacious 3 bed home here on 600sqm, I could afford a fairly grotty one bed flat in a large block to be anywhere near regular visiting distance of my parents in the Home Counties.

I feel if you're going to do it, then do it whilst your child is young. However id potentially enjoy the rest of this (aus) school year here whilst day to day life is fairly normal and return to the uk maybe around Xmas?

I’d want to spend the time with aging family TBH.

Things are mixed here. Restaurants and bars are buzzing and families are really looking forward to the school holidays.
But we’ve no idea what our leaders will do next. It’s like a crap version of Love Islsnd.

@sashagabadon

It’s all pretty positive in London from what I can see. Main issue is the crap weather right now, rain, rain and more rain! But things are looking up and life is returning to London. People will be ditching their masks imo come July 19th. We’re at pretty good levels of immunity, vaccine or naturally. I personally think the U.K. and Europe is in a good place now and actually a better place than Australia and News Zealand who seem to me to be still reacting to Covid like it’s 2020.

It would appear you haven’t seen our latest infection figures if you believe us and Europe are in a good place now.

There’s optimism and then there’s misplaced delusion.

I wish I could give you some wise advice . Living in Queensland for 6 years. Thought we were settled here and then Covid hit. This latest wave of infections has finally got me angry with the governments lack of exit plan. Are we going to continue locking down over 20 cases? If we don't start talking about how we are going to live with Covid rather than total elimination, I don't know if I can stay here. I feel like a prisoner here. This morning's briefing by Annastacia Palaszczuk included her talking about tightening international borders. I feel sick that I can't see my family. So I feel your dilemma.

@pooonastick

I wish I could give you some wise advice . Living in Queensland for 6 years. Thought we were settled here and then Covid hit. This latest wave of infections has finally got me angry with the governments lack of exit plan. Are we going to continue locking down over 20 cases? If we don't start talking about how we are going to live with Covid rather than total elimination, I don't know if I can stay here. I feel like a prisoner here. This morning's briefing by Annastacia Palaszczuk included her talking about tightening international borders. I feel sick that I can't see my family. So I feel your dilemma.

Australian uptake of the vaccine has been pretty piss poor.

Victoria now has more people vaccinated then anywhere else in Aus because of our lockdown recently. I imagine the other states will start flying through it now too.

That's the roadmap out. But are Aussies taking it seriously?! No, because up until now it's only really been a problem for Victoria 🙄

BootsScoots . I am actually happy with what is happening here right now as it will give people a kick up the backside to get vaccinated and take it seriously. Everyone is so apathetic here because they just don't see a threat to themselves - until now

By the time we get our vaccine and ourselves sorted, we would to leave March 2022.

I'd hope covid and lock down would be done by then -
covidvax.live/location/gbr - this suggest by August this year 70% if the population should be vaccinated.

Covid-19 in the UK: How many coronavirus cases are there in my area? - you can look up rates and vaccination rates currently here - and by next year I would have thought we'd be in a much better place.

The covid board does tend towards the negative but I'd keep an eye on the situatiion - Bath is expensive housing, waiting lists on NHS will take fair few years to sort out and school in probably very dependent on area and schools - so I'd suggest lots of research.

I don't think people where I am are worn down and battered - bit fed up with covid and restictions. No idea long term about ecomony as Brexit is effects hard to gauge and forsee.

In your shoes I definitely would. UK is not my home country but my kids are teenagers so it's a massive challenge to uproot them. We are very well settled here and can't relate to our counterparts in our home country any more. I miss my parents and wish I had moved when my kids were in primary school. I'd move back in a heartbeat if they were that young now.

@LadyCatStark

Oh good, I wouldn’t. I do think people are very worn down. People seem very angry and there’s a huge gap between those that would love lockdown to last forever and those who want all restrictions to end right now. There’s a huge backlog in the NHS for anything that isn’t Covid. Children are having to relearn how to socialise. There’s still a lot of uncertainty and and awful lot of ambiguity about the “rules” and what can go ahead and what can’t (basically if it makes money it can go ahead, if not, forget it). Children have been largely forgotten by the government who make promises and then backtrack so that no one can trust a word they say. Most people are just done now.

I completely disagree with this, which does not match my experience at all.

I have a 6 year old. She lives life to the full. She adjusted to returning to school very easily. When we were doing online home learning, her school did an excellent job. She is going to extra circular activities without any restrictions.

The rules for indoor socialising is still a significant restriction, but there is still plenty of opportunities to socialise, for all of us

It seems somewhat crazy to even be thinking about leaving a fairly Covid free existence to a country that has been ravaged by its effects. It is hard to watch from afar.

Gosh, this is a tad dramatic! You will always find lots of miserable myrtles on the covid board so maybe not the right place to post - I would suggest moving it to AIBU maybe for a more balanced view.
Yes, lockdown was a pain but hopefully we're on the other side now - our vaccination programme is going great, deaths are extremely low - so it seems to be working!

I for one wouldn't swap places with you - Oz are possibly just putting off the inevitable IMO and it's going to be very hard to play catch-up.

You sound miserable in Oz - life's too short and your df may not have much time left. I'd definitely be getting the wheels in motion!

And I agree with Antihop - my dc's are doing absolutely fine. There have been a few isolations (4 dc's) which is a pain but it hasn't adversely affected them, they've taken it all in their stride - but I think that's because dh and I have done a good job of instilling some resilience in them.

It would appear you haven’t seen our latest infection figures if you believe us and Europe are in a good place now.

It doesn't matter though if people aren't getting seriously ill or dying. Why is this so hard to understand? Infection rates are rising bc things have opened up and also more people are testing.
So long as we can keep hospital rates low we are on our way to getting out of this.

This is one of the regular moaning myrtles I'm talking about OP!

Reading the British papers make me feel miserable!!! But if I don't read them then the reality is it's actually all feeling quite normal ish at the moment (winter was horrid!) so if you were looking at March next year then I'd say that's a good time to move. Hopefully the vaccination programme will be successful and we will be over the worst of the winter bumps and ready for Spring Summer... So even if we have more restrictions over Winter, we should be in a better place by April... The papers do honestly all look doom and gloom though, our town, most people are smiling, getting out and about more, having friends over more with less fear now that we have vaccinations as some armour