how is life in Oslo different to outside London?

[hibiscus1]

Is anyone on mumnset who lives in Oslo? I would very much appreciate your advice.

I have a job offer in oslo and we are considering moving with a 3.5 year old and 6 months old old baby. Our older one is very sensitive and loves his nursery and friends here in england.

In terms of english speaking preschools I have found the montessori preschool, frogner preschool and NaKuHel preschool. Do you have any experience with them?

I haven't found any English speaking nurseries that would take a 1 year old. I can't imagine that there aren't any. Are there any ones that I
missed?

The job offer is really interesting but I am very nervous about moving as we are very well integrated in our local community. We both are engaged in volunteer work and there is so much going on for children. We are living one hour outside London and people are very open and welcoming. I commute into London and my husband works locally. Moving to Oslo would give me more job security, less time spend commuting and a higher salary.
Could you please give me any insights on how life in Oslo is different to the UK.

I live a couple of hours north of Oslo. I used to live in Oslo years ago. I don't know about the schooling. Have you tried the international school? They may have kindergarten age.

Oslo is a small and green city. Pace of life is much slower than London. People work short hours and spend more time outdoors. It is hard to get to know people and people are not generally welcoming to newcomers. But there is an active expat social life in Oslo that you could probably join (they are welcoming).

I used to lived in Oslo before I got married and had a family. Generally I would say the quality of life is amazing. I had a lovely job with lovely colleagues. However Norwegians all know each other - have friends from school, uni, family etc and so in my experience are not that friendly to incomers (not unfriendly just dont have the time). So you might need to find other expat families. I did go to the Anglican church in Oslo which was v friendly and multinational.

I live in a different city in Norway, and lived in Oslo a few years ago. I love life here. It depends what you’re like as a person but having a job already will help a lot (as apposed to moving there without a job for a relationship).

Like the others say, Norwegians can be hard to get to know first and tend to have tightknit friendship groups that can be hard to get into.

Have you thought about just sending your children to Norwegian nurseries? It might be hard to find a places this late for August although - it’ll probably be just as hard to find places in the English ones too. The nursery system is brilliant and one of my favourite things about living here.

There’s a big Facebook group called Brits in Oslo, I’d recommend joining it to get the lowdown on specific areas etc.