FAMILY MOVE TO WALES

[Stephen99]

are we mad to consider moving the family to a little fishing village on the lleyn peninsula (north west wales)?

there's no reason other than we fancy it.

nippers are 6, 4 and 5 months.

i'd have to travel a bit more for work, but can work from home sometimes. wife not working atm anyway, and considers herself to be sahm now really.

its a welsh speaking area...presumably the children will pick it up faster than we will and will be fine.

its only 2 hours from friends and family here, so not too bad on that front.

i dunno...outdoor country life, beaches, general pleasantness...what could possibly go wrong?! hee hee

any thoughts?

Its gorgeous there - go for it.

lovely, isn't it?

but....but but but....wife and i had a lovely tal about it this morning on a lovely walk in the park...we're leaving a lovely life here...nice semi in the burbs, lovely garden...occassional booze up, but now we're talking like newly weds making plans...hee hee!

hopefully the nippers will be inspired and be poets or painters or...erm surfers or farmers???

anyway, some rich couple will turn up v soon and bid the asking price and hav 100k to spend on it and ruin things forever and ever....

so what, things are great as they stand....aaaaaarrgghhh! what to do????

x

come on, any thoughts????

i just dont want to be on my deathbed and say that i lived in a pleasant semi in the suburbs all my life.

OK, you asked for an opinion. We moved to the gower, s.wales just like you full of optimism for a lovely life, walks, beaches, country life. Had a gorgeous home too.

OMG, how bored were we? Bored beyond tears, disliked it, kids too small to do anything - ended up spending most of the time in the car doing stuff like going to the park, going into town.

I would only advise go there several times on a wet and windy wednesday in winter to see what it would be really like living there. Think of practicalities, like getting a pint of milk, loaf of bread - what happens if you need a nappy.

So we moved back to the burbs and now we are moving back to the country (but more realistic) this time. Now, I don't regret it, but I would say that it did put a lot of strain on the marriage for a while (2 young kids, very lonely, quite remote, lots of driving everywhere).

Just be sure - this time of moving we are being super-careful about getting this right....good luck!!

gotta be quick, wriggly baby on lap, as oneliein says, ask yourself some questions first...

Is there a big shop/supermarket?
Do tesco/asda deliver? (forget ocado!)
IS the beach child friendly or is there a beach/ (Harbour walls are not child friendly)
IS there a big town nearby with shops
Parks?

spend the day in the village to see what you can do etc
people shouldnt be an issue, kids will learn welsh in seconds!
good luck!

Well, my parents moved to West Wales when I was 7 (Sister 9, brother 5) and we loved it. We were very remote but there were several English families with children as well as Welsh speaking families. We went to a school where we basically started to learn Welsh straight away - it was useful. My mum felt a bit isolated though, as she was a SAHM at the time and had few friends.

I expect your kids will love it but they might miss their friends and they will have problems with the language and no doubt you will all have problems with the politics of the language. If you do move then it's wise to look into starting some kind of Welsh Class and to get involved with the community. Don't just stick with the other English Families and dono't get a bee in your bonnet when other people talk Welsh around you. The chance that they are talking ABOUT you is slim and it's easy to get paranoid but not worth it.

I'm further up the coast on Anglesey and as much as I love living here we are miles from anything/anywhere. Bangor is a 30 minute drive for us and Chester even further.

The Lleyn is pretty remote and far from big city. Local hospital would be Bangor- quite a distance. Any specialist services even further.

As an incomer to the area you need to consider the Welsh issue. Your children WILL be taught through the medium of Welsh and unless you learn to speak it yourself then you won't be bale to help with homework etc.

Depends where on the Lleyn but some areas are very Welsh and remember that it is people's first language so often in the pub/shop/library etc that is what you will hear.

Don't want to put you off but do think about it before moving

hey listen...many thanks for all this...most of stuff we're considering obv, but many many thanks for taking the time...

thing i hadn't thought of is not being able to help children with homework in welsh...oh. that's the kind of thing we need a nudge on...wonder if we'd b good enough to keep up with the children's learing...doubt it, as nippers learn quickly.

other issue...its not so remote...in a village, so spar always at hand...tesco 6/7 miles away so not so bad. and a wet and windy wednesday is much the same aywhere i reckon...but better with a hot cup of soup and a roaring fire in a lovely cottage than in a semi on a bus route!

am more than aware that welsh is the first language...have been going there for 30 years...its not nice 2 b rude though is it, and expect peple 2 speak english 2 u...am not bad at french and spanish, so perhaps we can pik up sum welsh quite quickly.

more pressing is that the place we want is overpriced...by 100k i think! plus the place needs at least 50k spent on it 2 be even half decent. the guy set his own price against the estate agents thoughts...i dont think he's in a rush to sell, so we'll just have to wait til he comes to his senses. or sum properly rich people buy it as a second home and we go back to dreaming...tee hee!

Good luck. I was raised in Ireland and West Wales and for kids it can be wonderful.

I'm not so sure about the situation with Welsh schools though. Someone has said that the children would learn through the medium of Welsh but maybe all the schools are not Welsh language schools or maybe they don't teach exclusively through Welsh?

Good luck. I was raised in Ireland and West Wales and for kids it can be wonderful.

I'm not so sure about the situation with Welsh schools though. Someone has said that the children would learn through the medium of Welsh but maybe all the schools are not Welsh language schools or maybe they don't teach exclusively through Welsh?

all schools on the lleyn are welsh medium

Welsh isn't that hard to pick up if you are living in a Welsh speaking area and are surrounded by the language(says someone who has forgotten all of hers!) it counts for a lot if you are trying to learn, same as any country! There will be bound to be night courses for adults so don't worry too much about that.

All of that stuff I wrote is worst case sort of thing, I grew up in a tiny hamlet in the middle of the lincolnshire fens, not evena corner/village shop for 3 miles. It was great as a small child but once my sisters hit their teen years they hated it as there were no buses etc and they had to either cadge a lift of my parents (which meant strict curfews) or depend on taxis (veyr expensive) so we moved back to a town when I was 10.
Worth thinking about your kids once they hit puberty and want to hang out without you...