Wanted Down Under

[NancyDonahue]

Did anyone catch this this morning? Same old format and a bit boring. It is long overdue a makeover.

However, I love it

Odd, isn't it, Betty?

It is duck I’m totally perplexed!

I think 50's is too late.

In general, your children are not old enough to be left behind, but old enough to have an opinion on whether they want to make the move. And your parents are ageing and increasingly in need of help. You're also risking having very little relationship with your own grandchildren.

I think you need to go before having children or when they're very young, whilst your own parents are young enough to not need a lot of help yet, or even have the option of making the trip to visit.

I’m inclined to agree, Nancy. Especially in the case of today’s family, I just don’t see what NZ offered them that their life in Yorkshire didn’t.

Outdoors green space? They lived in the countryside .

NZ weather is similar to ours, isn’t it? So they wouldnt be ticking that ‘expat’ box, either.

Both had good employment opportunities and a very comfortable lifestyle here, so that criteria wasn’t lacking either. The work-life balance seemed to be pretty good. If they wanted to obtain more of a W/L balance, they could have downsized their large family home and pocketed a nice nest egg which allowed Dad to reduce his hours. They would then have both been working P/T, had free time to sped together and had a financial cushion, plus the bonus of remaining on the same continent as their dependent relatives.

I think sometimes these people get so obsessed with emigration and The Dream that they can’t see the wood for the trees. They can’t see that a better life is perfectly possible closer to home if they make adjustments to their lifestyle (as well as being more practical, cheaper, less stressful and easier to reverse). Emigration is the magic bullet.

So now I'm watching another episode on the home channel. A family with 2yiung boys and a budget of 300k. So they've shown them a tiny flat for 400k, a fixer upper family home with no garden for 450k and their dream house for 514k. So of course based on houses they're voting Oz. What's the point of showing them houses they absolutely can't afford?

@DuckOffAutocorrectYouShiv this always annoys me ... when they do the financials often one member of the couple is basing their earnings in NZ/Oz on a full time salary when they are part time in the UK. Hardly comparative and of course they'll have more money!

I do enjoy watching though!

It looks like today’s ep is a couple with kids from a previous relationship. Sky info says ‘... leaving the children’s father behind in the UK’. Hmmm. Looks like dad is involved and cares, how could you do that to your kids?

Even if you personally hate your ex, if they are a good parent with a good relationship with your mutual children, how could you justify destroying that relationship?

Half of this couple are still in training?! ‘Trainee teacher’, how far into her training? Will she complete her training before moving?

Poor Dad. “Plays a huge part and sees the kids every day. Gary is supportive of the move because he’s ‘always known it’s always on the cards’. So he should just suck it up and continue to accept your childhood dream even if I think means you taking his four children to the other side of the world, indefinitely . Gary would appear to be a bloody saint or a doormat, I can’t decide which.

Involved dad or move to Australia , surely that is a no brainer .

How selfish is she being? The kids obviously adore their dad. But it's "Rebecca's dream". Even the kids are are parroting this phrase.

Brainwashed

Gosh, they want a lot for their budget, don’t they?

I’m really not keen on the Aussie homes. All bland, open, featureless bungalow boxes with teeny gardens.

The children are delightful. But I can't believe she would take them away from their dad when he's so involved with their every day lives.

I cannot believe todays mum is planning on taking her 4 children away from their dad!!!

I hope that she's just come on to the show for a free holiday, and has no intention of actually splitting them up. If DH and I were to ever split up I wouldn't take the kids more than 10 mins away. Let alone half way round the world.

This is my pet peeve, moving children half the world away from an involved parent. Just no. I don't understand how people can be so selfish.

It is shocking.

That last house is nice but the wildlife in that wooded garden will be . All the bugs and whatnot.

Why would she take the children away from an involved father? It's one thing when there's a deadbeat father, but one that sees children every day? That's just beyond selfish.

Given the choice, I would much rather live in an Australian house than a British one. At least Australian ones have space (the big ones that they show on this show).

Literally, the rest of the programme is irrelevant in the face of her plan to remove the children from their dad.

There's some beautiful coastline and countryside around Sunderland too, and very easily accessible - I have family up there and often explore on buses and public transport. Lovely walks around Seaham etc, property is cheap compared to other areas of the country, lovely people.

They must be knackered, jet lag wise, going all that way for one week.

Poor kids and dad. And also how much do NQTs earn in Oz??

£105k for a 5 bed house? That's bloody insane!

Why are so many of them impressed by the higher wages, then astonished that the grocery bill is higher? Why do they think jobs pay more?

5 minutes in and this one is making me angry. I only hope that if they do make the move, the kids dad finds a way to go too.

I hate the family messages bit- they always make it out as if the family is being flown out into space or something. They are always full of guilt tripping as well.