Living In America ..You say Goodbye, I say Hello, ...

[kickassangel]

New Thread.

Bunkups

Do you mind me asking how you registered your son/daughter as a British citizen? We just moved out to the states and had our son a couple of months ago. We are waiting for birth certificate to come through to get his US passport but I am not sure how I make sure he also has British citizenship.UK embassey website not that clear. I need to leave the country in early summer without my husband to return to UK for 6 weeks and just want to avoid any complications as his passport will be in our married name- my uk passport is still in my maiden name and you know what they are like at the airport!!

Hi all the UK ex pats.

We moved here in the autumn- 30 weks pregnant so it was quite intense getting everything sorted.
do any of you know how long you have to do the californian driving test? I have only just ventured out in the car but hate the freeways so much and try to avoid driving but you just have to drive here to get anywhere.
I just read it is 10 days somewhere on the thread- surely not? It took us 6 weeks to buy a car!!

I am loving the weather here and the americans i have met have been so warm and friendly to us, inviting us for dinners and stuff, but still want to meet more mums ith babies. I was told that you meet loads of mums when you have a baby but that has not been my experience so far- in the maternity ward we were away in a private room and did not see another mum in the 4 days we were in.

Hi, missic. No, you won't meet other mothers in the hospital. We like our privacy after birth! But you can check out things like kindermusik. It's a bit easier once the baby gets somewhat older, ime.

thanks jabberwocky. I will check it out. I had a very positive experience in the hospital- fabulous staff, so kind.Many of the managers in the NHS could learn a thing or two about how to run a ward from the US- the last time i went into hospital in London I had a far less pleasant experience. Although when the bill arrived( covered by insurance) we did wonder quite how 4 days in hospital could come to the best part of $40,000? Good job Obama is on the case on that one. What on earth do the uninsured do?
But the quality of care was superb- i will never forget how kind those nurses were and what a difference it made being overseas without friends and family for our first baby. They were the best!

If you are uninsure and pregnant you get covered by medicaid. Still, 40,000 is pretty high. I was in for 5 days with ds2 and I think it was $25,000 and that included the c-section. Of course, a lot of hospitals have to inflate the charges to cover what they write off for the uninsured which is generally what happens in those cases. And you are in California...

Hi missic - we moved to CA 7 weeks ago and yes you are supposed to do driving test 10 days after you become a 'resident'. I think the 'resident' status gives you a bit of unofficial leeway! (you can look at DMV site and how they describe it). Anyway we also need to do tests! Hopefully insurance will be cheaper when we have US license.

Bunkups - totally agree that socialising feels more like networking! it's so true.

Where I am there don't seem to be as many 'mommy & me' type activities as in the UK (playgroups/music/gym type). Might just be the area we're in. There are a lot more casual crèche type things where mums can leave baby/kid (mom's shopping morning, gym etc..). This no good for meeting potential friends!

We do have a story-time at the library so I might try that.

Jabberwocky- I agree. The doctor's fee was 33000 alone then all other stuff knocked it up to 40K- it is pretty outrageous really but i don't think the insurance co pay that as the bill seemed to suggest they get some sort of discount- but this is what you would pay if you were uninsured I suppose.I don't think it was an expensive hospital particularly.

redflipflops- where are you?There is some sort of meetup website out here as well where you can make contact with people interested in the same things as you.It is much easier being in an English speaking country as an ex pat I am sure and most americans are significantly more friendly than your average Brit I have found- but it is still hard to make friends as it takes time which everyone is short of.

If I am not really driving I wonder if i need to take the test yet. I feel I need more practice first.These funny stop signs and strange speed limits on hills of 25 mph??

Hello

Can I ask if people got their children a SNN?

Tax person has said we'll pay less Tax if we get them but others have said it is a difficult process to obtain a SNN for a child.

Anyone done this?

Hello Living in America Thread!

We are moving to San Francisco in June (still sorting out houses and looking at areas to live). Ds will be 20 months Anyone of you out there? What is it like for toddler groups? Ds is bilingual, German-English, and I am planning to send him to a German speaking nursery. Long shot but has anyone any experience?

Hello! Lots of new faces on here. I am not a good one to talk to as I was miserable for most of my time on the US. I do miss it though, sort of.

I did loads of playgroups and classes with DS plus free days at museums, library and voluntary work to keep busy.

My bill for 3 days in hospital and a drug & intervention free vaginal birth was $30,000. DS had jaundice so was in the newborn nursery for a couple of days but still at the cost.

I think we got DS SSN automatically after a couple of months. He's had one since he was a few weeks old and I'm sure we didn't apply for it.

No idea re California & German speaking nurseries but if you are near a university, there may be German groups round there?

Anyone heard from Dooney?

Superbunny, am at your hospital bill. I didn't have coverage for standard delivery with ds1 so prepaid the $6000 bill. Then he was emergency section so the insurance picked it all up after all. Very odd that there is such a disparity.

It's scary isn't it? I wasn't even in a fancy hospital and was only in labour at the hospital for 4 hours or so. When I went through the bill, there were a few things on it that I think shouldn't have been - they kept trying to get me to take painkillers after I'd given birth but there was no pain so I refused. Yet they were itemised on my bill

I should probably have questioned it but I was too busy with a newborn to do that.

redflipflops - we applied for a ITIN (tax no.) for dd with our tax return. (well, the accountant did) - depends which visa you're on as to whether you can have a SSN or ITIN number (they look the same, but the tax office & Social services know the difference)

i've been in the UK for a few days, so not been on here much.

for those of you who i've been talking to for a while - we're trying ADHD meds for dd atm, and theymake a definite difference. if getting her to take the stuff wasn't so traumatice, i'd be v happy indeed. mainly relieved that i wasn't a complete nutcase for noticing something different about my dd, even more relieved that it is so treatable. still quite sad, though, after all, we all want them to be perfect. anyhow, it's not really a major problem, is it? life could be much worse!

my rl friends here have just discovered mooncups - tempted to link them to a couple of threads on mn.

angel, ds's meds are still in the cupboard - still haven't decided yet whether to trial them or not lol. how's dd doing? how long has she been on them now?

this week we have had some cool news, we've been accepted for residence for canada instead of just being here with work!

this is 100% unexpected as dd2 has a physical disability and we were never certain that we would be accepted as she could be regarded as a 'burden' for the state. we don't have to go to appeal! totally the last thing we expected - we did apply in 2006 lol, so it's taken a while, but we got there in the end!

wow! great news. dh's firm is going through traumatic times - we don't even know if he'll get paid this month, so although we want to apply for green cards, not really a suitable time.

dd been on meds for 3 days - they only work for the time they are in the system, no build up or anything. about an hour after taking them she becomes less fidgety, we can sit & do homework etc. went round a museum without me being stressed because i had a choice of letting her run wild, OR physically restraining her. she does get a bit grumpy as she comes 'down' & she eats almost nothing at lunch time (she's v skinny, so a little worrying).

once we have established the 'right' dose, i'm thinking school days only - which means i get the joy of making her take them in the am, the grumpy & hungry bit at the end of the day, and mad child at weekends. Hurrah!

i am also upping the amount of sport & activities she does, although she does love quiet time at home to read/watch tv & play on the ds, but physical activity does seem to run it out of her system, iykwim.

that sounds really promising... we must have a similar type i think, once a day in the mornings, with the theory being they are out of the system by bedtime...

i'm a bit concerned about issues with height too - ds is a bit of a shortie like me, whilst the girls are tall like dh (always the way). everyone says ds will have a growth spurt and catch up lol, but the last thing he needs is to stunt his growth on top of everyting else! he isn't keen on taking them when we've discussed it, but our doc changes this week, so i think we're going to go and see the new one and talk it through properly - i'm not entirely convinced that the last doc was thorough enough to skip straight to meds tbh...

good news for your dd though - sounds like a really good start

rough on the job front though - one thing after another, eh?

Hi everyone. Life got a little crazy there for awhile. Good to see everyone again.

So sorry to hear about DH's job, kickass.

The most recent story for us is we've put our house on the market and are looking around here for somewhere new. We have 3 different people that want to buy it, but they all have to sell their houses first, and unless you're in the "starter home" category around here, nothing is selling. So I have a feeling I'll have to be keeping my home in impossibly pristine shape for a very long time.

Am quite shocked at all your hospital bills. I think mine were around $5-6 thousand (total) each. I had drug and intervention free births, and had to keep the baby with me because there was no other place for them, but still sounds much cheaper than usual.

Hi Guys, just wanted to drop in.
We moved from the UK in July 2009 to Oregon and the homesickness is starting to kick in Any tips?
I have 3 little ones 5, 3 and 9 months and am homeschooling, really disliked the school system where we are at?
Any advice tips you can offer would be great.

im going to keep eye on these boards have a lon term plan of moving to the USA when ds2 has finshed with schooling .

I made the slip up of falling for a Amercian so will be permant move when i go

Good news, madwoman.

Nightmare, Dooney! Hope you are ok. x

Where in Oregon are you smithy? It's such a beautiful part of the US.

We are in a little town called Sandy East of Portland, hoping to move closer to Portland in the Summer as Sandy doesn't have too much going on.

Hi Smithy. I don't blame you for homeschooling. I'm in the Portland area. Our schools are terrible here. We're trying to move to get out of the school district we're in, but know that moving isn't going to improve the situation much. Oregon is in the bottom five states for spending money on schools, and it shows.

I was absolutely in shock the other day, as my son came home with a really nice prize out of the prize box. (He's in Kindergarten) Usually he gets glue sticks or pencils or something, so I asked him what he did to get such a nice thing, and it turns out that the teacher split them into 3 groups, she taught one, her aide taught one, and my son taught the last one.

Crikey Dooney! I bet DS was brilliant though. Chicago school system is one of the worst in the country and that was one of my biggest reasons to not want to stay there. Well, that and all the other reasons . But the schools were really shocking.