# Move or not to move



## loobs (Sep 16, 2010)

Iam thinking of moving to spain with young children, already have family over there, alot of questions and doubts, anyone with advice?


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## lynn (Sep 25, 2008)

loobs said:


> Iam thinking of moving to spain with young children, already have family over there, alot of questions and doubts, anyone with advice?


Hi Loobs,

In my opinion, to give a greater chance of a relocation abroad working takes a lot of research. Before you decide whether it should be embarked upon, you need to look into: the financial side of things ie. how are you going to support yourself and family? (employment is extremely hard to secure here at the moment), the emotional side ie will you be homesick? education for the children - are they young enough to go into spanish school, and do you envisage them continuing their education in Spain or are you thinking of moving back to the UK? What sort of environment do you envisage living in and will that suit you and your family? The more research you can do the better. You say you have family here already, so that will undoubtedly help (provided you actually get on with them!). What is absolutely clear is that the reality of living here permanently is nothing like the holidays you may have had here visiting your family....


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

lynn said:


> Hi Loobs,
> 
> In my opinion, to give a greater chance of a relocation abroad working takes a lot of research. Before you decide whether it should be embarked upon, you need to look into: the financial side of things ie. how are you going to support yourself and family? (employment is extremely hard to secure here at the moment), the emotional side ie will you be homesick? education for the children - are they young enough to go into spanish school, and do you envisage them continuing their education in Spain or are you thinking of moving back to the UK? What sort of environment do you envisage living in and will that suit you and your family? The more research you can do the better. You say you have family here already, so that will undoubtedly help (provided you actually get on with them!). What is absolutely clear is that the reality of living here permanently is nothing like the holidays you may have had here visiting your family....


Yes, you need to think about all the things Lynn has said here.
You can find lots of ideas and opinions right here on the forum. Just use the search facility on the Spain page. Look for stuff like employment, unemployment, jobs, education, schools, moving, Spanish, language etc etc. I can guarantee you hours of reading!!


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## loobs (Sep 16, 2010)

lynn said:


> Hi Loobs,
> 
> In my opinion, to give a greater chance of a relocation abroad working takes a lot of research. Before you decide whether it should be embarked upon, you need to look into: the financial side of things ie. how are you going to support yourself and family? (employment is extremely hard to secure here at the moment), the emotional side ie will you be homesick? education for the children - are they young enough to go into spanish school, and do you envisage them continuing their education in Spain or are you thinking of moving back to the UK? What sort of environment do you envisage living in and will that suit you and your family? The more research you can do the better. You say you have family here already, so that will undoubtedly help (provided you actually get on with them!). What is absolutely clear is that the reality of living here permanently is nothing like the holidays you may have had here visiting your family....



The children are 8 and 4, area is a quiet oldish spanish town, not too much tourism, most of my family liveout there now, just until we try how will i knowif the children will integrate, research will be done, but i would I be right in saying I can not research what is actually going to be like? Or is there a way?


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## lynn (Sep 25, 2008)

loobs said:


> The children are 8 and 4, area is a quiet oldish spanish town, not too much tourism, most of my family liveout there now, just until we try how will i knowif the children will integrate, research will be done, but i would I be right in saying I can not research what is actually going to be like? Or is there a way?


No, I can appreciate that until you are here, you can't know what it is truly like, but there are lots of things that you can find out about. Absolutely top of the agenda is to have an idea of how you intend to live and that will mean how will you support yourself and your children? What work would you be able to do here, and what about childcare when you are at work? Plus, you say it is a quiet and mostly Spanish area. Outside of your family, are there likely to be other families that you will be able to socialise with? If you come from a large busy town in the UK, will you miss all the facilities like shops, leisure centres, etc?? 

As for the children settling into Spanish school, well, the younger they are, the easier it is for them to pick up the language...


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## loobs (Sep 16, 2010)

lynn said:


> No, I can appreciate that until you are here, you can't know what it is truly like, but there are lots of things that you can find out about. Absolutely top of the agenda is to have an idea of how you intend to live and that will mean how will you support yourself and your children? What work would you be able to do here, and what about childcare when you are at work? Plus, you say it is a quiet and mostly Spanish area. Outside of your family, are there likely to be other families that you will be able to socialise with? If you come from a large busy town in the UK, will you miss all the facilities like shops, leisure centres, etc??
> 
> As for the children settling into Spanish school, well, the younger they are, the easier it is for them to pick up the language...


Do you know if, in a normal spanish school do they have any english speaking teachers?


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## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

loobs said:


> The children are 8 and 4, area is a quiet oldish spanish town, not too much tourism, most of my family liveout there now, just until we try how will i knowif the children will integrate, research will be done, but i would I be right in saying I can not research what is actually going to be like? Or is there a way?


The children, at 8 and 4, will be fluent Spanish speakers before you know it. Within the year they'll be fluent. Within 3 they'll start to forget English, so you'll need to work on that. The 4 year old may have to go to nursery until 6.

As you have family here, all the questions regarding the school can be sorted by them - quick 30 min session with the director and all your questions will be answered - spaces available, English speacking teachers etc. If it's anything like Galicia, English is a must at all levels. In ESSO (secondary) it gets serious and the teachers need to know their subject. In primary it's a bit of a joke with things like the letter A being a problem for the kids and the teachers being just as bad. But if you continue with English at home, your challenge will be level of English not the language itself.


As for making friends - with kids at school at that age you are guaranteed automatically a circle of contacts. Question then is how good you are at mixing it 

As for how to finding out whether you'll hate it or not, it's almost impossible done properly. If you don't leave the UK officially, you'll miss out on lots of benefits, including health cover for up to 2.5 years paid for by the UK. You'll also find it difficult to do most things if your are not in the Spanish system, registered on the town hall, your ID etc. Getting a job without these will be practically impossible... I'm talking about a job here and not cash money in some bar or whatever.

I have to say that my immediate thought is "don't". With so many doubts, it won't take much to tell yourself that "Told you so!" and that's a recipe for failure. But I might be misinterpreting your post. You might be excited as hell but very worried about the reality of it all. That's only natural and won't stop you doing it.

Please do consider the real issue. Above all else, how will you finance yourself for X period? X is the time frame you give yourself before going back. If that's sorted, the rest is not important for step 1.

Why not do what so many Galicians have done in past dacades going to England, Germany, Switzerland etc., etc. Tell yourself that you're comming over for a year or two. Plan to be back before your 8 year old starts secondary (so before age 11) and thus not mess around with the education too much. Then, if it goes horribly wrong, you have a plan you stick to and just return. If it goes fabulously well, chuck plan A and stay?!

Who knows, in 2 and a bit years you will either be liquidating all your UK assets and moving over lock stock and barrel, or youll be going back to them.

Good luck,
Xose


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## loobs (Sep 16, 2010)

Xose said:


> The children, at 8 and 4, will be fluent Spanish speakers before you know it. Within the year they'll be fluent. Within 3 they'll start to forget English, so you'll need to work on that. The 4 year old may have to go to nursery until 6.
> 
> As you have family here, all the questions regarding the school can be sorted by them - quick 30 min session with the director and all your questions will be answered - spaces available, English speacking teachers etc. If it's anything like Galicia, English is a must at all levels. In ESSO (secondary) it gets serious and the teachers need to know their subject. In primary it's a bit of a joke with things like the letter A being a problem for the kids and the teachers being just as bad. But if you continue with English at home, your challenge will be level of English not the language itself.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your advice, we are very excited about the prospect, and are hoping to move early next year. there are always doubts in anything even within the same country. a word of advice from others who have made the same move is always important, and we need to make sure that other children have coped alright with it and not felt like outcasts, my worry is that they would be alien to it and maybe get picked on, listening to your views it sounds like this is not the case.


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## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

loobs said:


> Thank you for your advice, we are very excited about the prospect, and are hoping to move early next year. there are always doubts in anything even within the same country. a word of advice from others who have made the same move is always important, and we need to make sure that other children have coped alright with it and not felt like outcasts, my worry is that they would be alien to it and maybe get picked on, listening to your views it sounds like this is not the case.


Kids of that age, particularly so in rural areas, are still very much children and don't have the sadistic angle seen in so many inner city schools. Also, Spain is taking child issues extremely seriously (I would say as serious as female partner abuse, but not quite as over the top yet...) and bullying is stamped on very quickly. Trouble is, one grown up's "messing about" can sometimes be seen by a parent as bullying. A trip to see the school director/class teacher normally sorts this out toute de suite. 

Children in Spain have a phone number to report any abuse issues. If an adult gets accused of anything by a child, that adult has some heavy problems heading their way. In short, guilty until proven otherwise... bit like the female partner laws. Not good IMO. but good for your worries.

In my experience, young kids from another country are seen by other young kids as "the mate" to have and before you know it, parents keen to have their kids learn English, will be pushing to have their kids playing with yours


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## loobs (Sep 16, 2010)

Can I ask another quick question, is there a time limit to living in spain before we have to become resident or should this be done immediately?


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## lynn (Sep 25, 2008)

If the kids are to start state school, you'll have to have your residency in place!


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

It's 6 months legally but as lyn says you'l need it to get the kids into school. A nother thing is here where I am they also want to see the childs health card before he can start. All the others havie given excellent advice especially Xose , with his plan A & B & he speaks from the experience of doing it the other way around ! Bear in mind that if you need to find work ,especially here in the south, then it will be extremely difficult if not impossible.


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