Am I the only one who gets irritated by 'Wanted Down Under'?

It is quite funny really. The houses they aspire to, with pool of course, are always far more expensive than their UK homes. Property isn't cheap down under so that is why both partners need to work. I think the weather is the biggest plus and presumably their kids can go to the beach ater school whereas back home it would be too cold by tea time.
I like Nicky Chapman and her pretty summer dresses though!

....spend more time as a family.......

But by leaving all their extended family behind, they are indicating to their children that actually extended family, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins have absolutely no value at all. What happens I wonder when those children grow up and see their parents as unimportant and as having no role in the life of their grandchildren?

Bit harsh maddyone young people often emigrate for a variety of reasons, jobs, lifestyle, adventure etc. Many posters on here have families living abroad, I'm sure they don't see grandparents and other family as unimportant.

I wonder too if those children will resent not having grown up with extended family, cousins they wont really know, grandparents who will age and then be unable to visit.

GillT57 one of our family members is very upset that he didn’t grow up with all of us in the U.K., he was a young child when they emigrated.

He’s back here now though, but it means that his own family is now ‘down under’. He wishes that they had never gone away, he feels he has missed out on so much, Grandparents, Aunts,Uncles and cousins and he always felt out of place in Australia.

Family were being repatriated back to Europe because of job, after five years of sun and beach life. Mother suggested to child after school ‘one last time at the beach’ was asked ‘Must I?’

sodapop actually I think it’s harsh of people to take young children, who have loving relationships with their grandparents and other members of their family, particularly cousins of their own age, away to the other side of the world and expect those children not to be hurt and even damaged by being ripped away from people with whom they very often have a very close relationship with, in particular grandparents who have provided childcare for their grandchildren since they were babies.

We moved away from the majority of our cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents when we were young children, but it was hundreds of miles, not thousands, we moved closer to one branch of the family, and spent long holidays with grandparents, not possible when you are an awfully long flight away, even assuming everyone is fit to do it. The one I saw today, they were all excited about taking their children to the zoo, as if we don't have world class ones here!! One group which always astound me are medics; now I know they do atrociously long hours here, but would it be any different in Australia? Do people only get ill by appointment and need surgery Monday to Friday 9-5?

Best I don't comment

People have always emigrated and immigrated.

My daughter lives there, having married an Australian, so didn’t emigrate.

Not everyone lives near a beach, or has a pool, and as DD points out, there are still the everyday humdrum aspects of life wherever you are.

Work, childcare, housework, cooking, shopping, gardening all have to be done.

The weather can be unbearably hot. They also have bush fires of course, and flooding occasionally. As for the flies.....

DD has been there over 20 years, her life is there, but I know that at times she misses home so much.

She once said she likes to watch Midsomer Murders, “Just to see the English countryside”.

I spent most of my life on the opposite side of the world when I was young.
I don’t know my cousins very well but have a very good and close bond with my immediate family.
What I think I missed was a sense of belonging. Where did/do I come from? Although we lived in HK for most of my childhood it was always a place of change. Friends coming and going all over the place.
The children whose parents go to live in Australia or NZ when the they are small won’t have that feeling though. They will go and settle and belong.
I absolutely know that if my children moved to Australia and had children I would be there at least 6 months of the year. As it is myDD in Sydney doesn’t have children so we see them every year but I choose to stay here at the moment whilst my other DD has children that I feel need us.
Don’t know why I have shared this, sorry, not much to do with the programme. Ignore me.
Actually one of the things about the programme that irritates me is the consideration that parents give to the children and their needs. We were just taken. Thank goodness, we had a fabulous life.

Yes I know that people have always emigrated and immigrated, I think I am just bemused at the reasons that people give spend more time with the family and then have to work full time, do more as a family, well why not do it here?

Gill57 perhaps after Covid one of the upsides is that we will value what we have?

In one of the programmes a family wanted to live in Sydney and the only property they could afford was a small flat. No open plan kitchen, pool, games room and spacious bedrooms. Do people really not do any research. I think Sydney is one of the most expensive places to live.

I think some would-be immigrants have unrealistic expectations but food and housing was relatively cheap not that long ago - however, property prices in Sydney, areas of other cities such as Brisbane, have gone up to match and even exceed British prices now.

From what I can see, life is better there for so many. Doctors, for example, are not as stressed as those in the UK but set against that is the price of healthcare for all Australians.

I can't say that people work less hard than in the UK but, from what I know, perhaps life in general is less stressful and the rewards are greater.

Who would not want to give their children a better, more hopeful future?
Why can grandparents not emigrate too?

maddyone I'm sorry if you have had a bad experience but describing it as "being ripped away from grandparents " is quite emotive. My daughter went to live in USA with her husband and had a great life out there, living on a farm with horses was her dream. I think
there are so many opportunities and in normal circumstances visits and technology keep relationships alive. I don't think we will agree on this.

I was very resistant to my DS and future DGC moving to NZ. But now looking from the perspective of time and the pandemic, it was the best decision a young family could have taken. My son is the happiest I’ve seen him in years, he is a stay at home dad, wife makes much more than she did in the U.K so supports them all and their weekends are their weekends, no more 6/7 day work weeks. They have also almost entirely missed the pandemic too, for which I am very grateful. If I wasn’t so happy they are safe and well I’d be jealous of their sunny beach lifestyle. I do struggle and miss them and the dear gc I’ve never met, but I haven’t even seen my own sister often and she lives round the corner, so how much would I have seen them if they did live here?

I don't think parents or grandparents should ever use emotional blackmail to stop their children pursuing their dreams.
My DD keep saying they wish we were there with them as everything looks so terrifying in the UK, viewed from the other side of the world.

I agree with Callistemon. Australia has a more relaxed culture than the UK, and the climate lends itself to year round outdoor lifestyles, which suits many families - work doesn’t dominate people’s lives in the same way as here, they may work longer hours if they were part time here, but evenings are long and warm for the majority of the year.

My sister and her husband emigrated 30 years ago, when their children were small, and have never regretted the decision. Technology has made contact with family much easier in recent years, and in normal times family visit them, and they come home every couple of years for a few weeks at a time (they have a brilliant long service award holiday system). My brother in law jokingly calls their house Sponge Cottage as we are all so keen to visit - and when people go out there they stay for a few weeks at a time, so time together lost is regained, I don’t think the children missed out, they are as much part of the family as the rest of us.

We had 3 years in California in the 80s with a job transfer. We all had a fantastic time and had but had to come back when the job ended. I so wanted to stay for many reasons. The attitude of positivity, the hospitable people, the wonderful climate and much more. We had a lovely house in the uk in a great area but I still miss the time we had there. It’s a big picture people emigrate for and their children’s chances and most people weigh it up and don’t make the decision lightly.

It also works the other way round and many young people from NZ and Australia choose to come to the UK for their overseas working experience. My sil's girls came over from Dunedin to Cornwall and Southend in order to improve their skills in shepherdary and nursing. One settled here in the UK and married an English man.

I can't speak for children who are ripped away from family as my DGC is born and bred Australian, but I do think that children are resilient and adapt very quickly as I do know other children, now teenagers and young adults who emigrated with parents when they were young. At least two have come back to the UK and spent time living with DGP but have returned to Australia.

It's Covid which has emphasised the distance.

The ones that worry me are the couples where one partner really doesn't want to go and a lot of effort goes into changing their mind. If they have such different ideas it is hard to see how emigrating is going to improve things.

In answer to the OP -NO, you are not the only person irritated by this programme. Rarely watch it. But when I dip in do note that they only show those who decide they want to go. Wonder how many who do not get shown decide after their free weeks holiday there that they do not think it has enough to offer them.
My sister-in-law, back in the 1960's married her American boyfriend. Her eldest child, born there, came to live in UK as soon as she was 18 years old, and has made her life here. Lovely, that even now in her fifties she and two of her cousins here meet up when they can.
Yes, people get sold the idea of sun and beach - but seem to be told little of the downside of living in such a hot weather country. Plenty of beaches to live close to in UK.