best country for work/ life balance and kids

[frazzled74]

where would people suggest we emigrate that would be good for dcs, i am dreaming of a happy ,less stressed life where i could work as a nurse, dh could work in a bar or similar part time, dcs would have good education and friends. this is fantasy at moment but am genuinely interested in peoples views as need a plan for future.

I've lived quite a few places, and the things I've found I value most are ease of living (ie. how long am I going to have to spend in queues to get something simple done), safety (I want to feel safe walking around at night), and variety (ie. places to eat, things to do, choices when I want to buy something)

I think that so far, the place that most works for me is Singapore - it's clean, efficient, plenty to do, and the climate is great (maybe a touch warm, but everywhere is air conditioned) and they speak English (it's one of the official languages)

Southern Spain is lovely, and families are really welcome there, but the ease of living doesn't exist - Spaniards love their paperwork, and something that would take you a 10 minute phonecall elsewhere can take a week. Also the homes just aren't built for winter, so cold weather is a bit of a trial.

I think that in picking a country you need to figure out what's most important to you - how do you feel about spending all day doing the family shop (my idea of hell - don't mind the market occasionally but I want to be able to nip to the supermarket for flour, milk and sugar!), being away from all the familiar stuff, learning a new language (and feeling a little isolated until you do) etc. It's surprising how much simple things like being out of timezone with your family back home affect you.

We live in Spain (and I've also lived in Yemen, Kenya and Tanzania) and find the work-life balance to be amazing.

we're both English Teachers (something neither of us had done before - we retrained once we were out here, only took a month and work was easy to find). A standard full-time teaching contract with an academy is only 24 hours a week, but the pay is comparable to what most Spaniards earn working 37 hours - so obviously we have loads of free time. DW is currently on Maternity leave, which was easy to arrange and comparable to the UK. Spain is very family orientated, the cost of living is cheaper (we're in Madrid and I'd compare it to living in Leeds in terms of cost) and there's lots to do culture and recreation wise.

Yes the admin can be a pain, but as long as you take all your paperwork with you it's straightforward enough even if you don't speak the language (which we didn't when we first moved here last year). Most of the time you have an appointment, so there's very little waiting, and even without one I've never had to wait longer than 30 minutes. To be honest, the British paperwork for registering my DD's birth and getting her UK passport was more of a pain...

seriously think about teaching English wherever you go - it's very easy to find work if you have a CELTA qualification and if you want to live and work in a non-EU country it's much easier to get a work permit as a TEFL teacher. most academies (e.g. International House) will usually sort the paperwork for you if they offer you a job.