Children moving abroad

[Angef67]

My daughter (only child) went travelling in 2015 and has settled in Australia with an Australian guy and had a baby who is now coming up to 10 weeks old.

I have spent a lovely 4 weeks out with her and just come back. Since coming back I am finding it incredibly hard and feeling really sad. I loved getting to know my granddaughter and supporting my daughter in the day to day of motherhood. We are very close and in contact every day on what's app and face time as much as possible.

I know when we have children, it's for a short time and if we have done the job properly they will feel they can fly away from the nest. I just wish it wasn't so far away as from UK to Australia is a long way and flights are not cheap so will not be able to get over as much as I would like.

How have other parents coped and does it get any easier?

Sorry Ange mine are younger so I haven't experienced this bit I can only begin to imagine how hard this is for you.

Hopefully, someone will be along soon with sone experience

Can you move here? How long until you retire? You could start doing research on things like the pension (I believe British citizens can access the aged pension here), Medicare, tax implications, how to get any pets across, what part of town you'd like to live in and house prices, that kind of thing. You can feel like you're doing something proactive towards being there for your daughter and granddaughter instead of dwelling on the negative feelings. Or if you won't retire for many years you can start looking into possible jobs (since it may take a long time to find one).