hello everyone,well the application is finally in and i have totally lost my bottle please tell me this is normal after everything that we have gone through,the heart ache of telling the family i feel like i cant go through with it i feel physically sick ,i still have the odd day when i think no we are doing it to give are kids a better life ,then i feel like i am being cruel taking them away from everthing they know please someone tell me they have had these feelings and it is not just me ,am i being stupid?
I know exactly how you feel, we are leaving on 19 Feb which was all fine and dandy. My dad died suddenly 6 weeks ago, leaving my mum all on her own, my two sister who live in England are moving back to Northern Ireland, and my brother is there as well, I just think I will be on the other side of the world from them all as they live there lifes and grow old, as you say it makes you feel sick some times.
I have however been honest with myself and my partner Mark (been together for nearly five years, totally in love) and said "well I can live with what if" I don't know how I will feel when I get there, but hey if it all goes tits up and I am really depressed what is there to do "buy a flight and come home", what have I lost, nothing, I am taking it as it comes.
thanks for your replys i know your right and like you say we can always come back ,just hope we get it right so we dont have to ,it really is better me knowing that it is not just me that feels like this thanks again for your thoughts.michelle
thanks jo really nice of you where are you planning to go when you get to australia ?i think we are heading for brisbane nerves permitting, our kids are 6 and almost 4 by the way.will keep in touch thanks for your reply.
I was fine about going to Oz really excited, but now we have applied I'm going through the same emotions you are, my kids are 14, 12, 9, and 4. Its a roller coaster of emotions but Oz is only a day away.
I'm really going to miss family and friends but we will all make new friends we've done it before we can do it again.
As for taking them away from what they know I've told my kids we are going for a years working holiday and then we will review, it if we love it we stay if not we come back. Worse case scenario they have a years fantastic experience.
With web cams and emails we can keep in touch with family and friends every day.
hi angie thanks for your reply,that is a good way to look at it telling them and myself it is a working holiday and a great experience for them,hopefully things will start to get exciting rather than feeling the way i do hopefully i will look back at this and think what was all the worrying about thanks again angie. michelle
Michelle and other troops!
You're not unusual in thinking that way about the tug that families have on our hearts.
I've been here 33 years now, married a 4th generation Australian girl, have three great kids all born here in Australia and am taking early retirement in May (34 weeks away . . . but who's counting??)
I'm feeling fragile at the moment which is unlike me. I came here on own in 1972 and consider myself a survivor . . . a "battler" as Aussies like to call them.
The trouble is, the older I get nowadays, the more I just want to check out where I came from, catch up with my old mum who is now in her late seventies and probably doesn't have many years left and see old mates that I knocked around with before I headed Down Under at the age of twenty.
You just have to live with the fact that half of you is on the other side of the world and half here in Australia.
I've worked with a lot of blokes but one in particular was from Belfast, coming out in the mid 1960's with his young wife. He retired after 26 years with us in August 2002 and died last week. I went to his funeral today. His wife, Gladys, mentioned that John had felt homesickness a year or so ago, and they'd gone back to Northern Ireland for 9 weeks before realising that their two daughters and their kids were back here in Adelaide, so they came back.
You really don't know which part to hang with . . . the part of you as a youngster and all your brothers, sisters and their families (nephews, nieces, etc.). . . or your own kids that have now grown up in Australia and have their families and see you as Grandad and Nan.
It's a tough call.
Don't think you will get over it. You get busy bringing up your kids, running them around and paying mortgages, but when you retire and have time to reflect, many folks from the Old Country take a trip back for old times' sake and see things once again.
It never leaves you. . . . . .
. . . . . . but we do things for the betterment of our kids and Australia is a great spot for kids to be brought up in.
hi bob and ginnie, what you have wrote is really interesting it sounds great out there but like you say the feeling never leaves you,it really is a hard one understandably we are going to do what we think is best for the kids at the end of the day,still trying to take are feelings in it really is hard,i think the best way for me to look at it is to take a long working holiday and see how we go from there,thanks very much for taking an interest and getting back to us we really appreciate it i hope what ever we decide it will be the right decision. michelle
I have so many second thoughts it's untrue. Good to hear that I'm not the only one feeling this way. So many of you doing this with kids in tow and we are not so I should stop all this worrying and try to enjoy it! Our family arn't happy at all, but hopefully will be better once they know that we are happy over there..try to stay positive.
I can really relate to what you are feeling. I am an Australian who has lived in Scotland for 16 years. I am planning to return home next year, along with my husband and 2 kids.
Despite feeling excited about going home I am also very frightened. What happens if my husband and kids don't settle? Will we find work, a decent home etc?
It is very scary to give up your job, sell your home and completely change your life. My husband has only been to Australia once and is more keen than I am to return, but I worry for him as I know how bad homesickness can be.
At the end of the day, I know that Australia will give my family a better quality of life - and I don't just mean money wise, it is very true to say that Australians work to live they don't live to work.
Good luck to you and remember, life is for living!!
