Hello everyone, we moved to Spain, near Barcelona six months ago and I am rather unhappy, unfortunately DH is very happy and so I've got to buck my ideas up a bit!
Dd is 20 months and we moved here in the hope that it would make life easier, ie working less, good weather etc. However, personally I find it much harder here to bring up a small child and I would really like some spanish person or someone who knows Spain well to see if they can tell me some good things about this place.
this is going to sound really negative but let me get all my concerns off my chest and you see if you can help. OK the weather, yep great in the winter months because there is less rain and you can be outside more. However, all over these summer months it is too hot and I don't think excessive heat and chemically suntan lotion everydayt is good for the wee girl.
Also you can spend more time outdoors but there's not many places to go!! It appears that most parents here put their children into nurseries at a very young age so there is a severe dearth of mother and toddler gruops, or music classes, swimming classes, kids' farms you know the kind of thing. We can go to the beach sure but that's it. It makes me really appreciate what my part of England had to offer.
also, b ecause we are in Catalunya, dd will have to learn spanish and Catalan, Catalan first perhaps as the schools don't even teach Spanish till they are 6 and I feel it is a shame to have so much empahsis on a language that not a lot of people speak.
I guess that is the beginning of my rant. I am in an internet cafe and won't be able to reply straightaway but will get back in a few days and would really appreciate any thoughts from people who know spain or people who have perhaps moved overseas and had a bit of a shock! thank you so much.