Thoughts on moving to sunshine coast

Hi
I am new here, so l will do a bit of an intro.
I am 39, married and have twin girls who are now already 8 years old.
We have just moved away from where l have lived all of my life, to Melbourne which is for my husbands job. It is a 2 year contract and we are thinking of moving to sunshine coast at the end of this contract. But the delima l face, is my parents are going to be even further away from me than they are now. We are only 1 hour drive from them now, and we used to be around the corner, it has been very hard a times, knowing they are not just around he corner anymore. I miss them at times very much.
We've always had thoughts about moving to a warmer climate near the beach, but l just don't know if l can cope being away from family. I just feel like l am letting them down and depriving my girls of grandparents and myself which l do have pretty good relationship with them. My parents have done so much for us, more than any other parent l can think of. I just feel like torn and don't know which way is the best to go.
Can anyone here offer an kind of suggestions or share there views? It would be greatly appreciated.

Sue

I would love to go! DH wont as he is a plumber and says it is just too hot to work! I moved out to Melbourne from the UK 7 years ago so not fussed with where we are but it is nice to be near DH family

I lived on the Sunny coast for 18 years before I moved back down to tassie. The only reason we left the coast was it was getting too busy, too many people moving there and they don't have the infrastructure there yet to deal with all the people. Yes it is hot, but its lovely most of the year, only really a few weeks over summer that its absolutely horrid.

As for moving away from your family - well thats what we did. DH's whole family is on the sunny coast and lived about 5 minutes from us. My mum lives in the hinterland and was 45 minutes drive from us.

Now its a 2.5 hour plane ride away. Its tough and I miss them heaps (well my family anyway haha) but I have my own little family here, and I have some friends that I met here on BB, and I do have a few uncles/aunties/cousins that I see from time to time.

It can get lonely though...

I guess l just get sick and tired of thinking about if its the right move or not?
We all love it there, but l love my parents.

Husband sais l will be fine without them, but l am not sure.

Sue

Well, I've done just that, moved from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast, in July last year.

However my family is in Sydney and DH's parents passed away years ago so we didn't exactly have a lot of family support anyway so for us, that wasn't really a factor to consider. We did try moving back to Sydney first but my mum works full time and my Dad is pretty useless frankly, he has no idea about babies, he's much better with older kids. So the occasional Saturday night babysit from Mum wasn't enough for us to stay in Sydney.

We moved up here for the lifestyle and to give our kids a sunscreen and gumtrees childhood. We'd talked about it on and off for years and it got to the point where we thought that if we didn't do it now, then once DS was settled in school we probably wouldn't do it at all. There are lots of people up here that move for the exact same reason (lifestyle) so it's actually quite easy to meet people of a similar mindset, although making friends does still take time, as it would anywhere. And so because of that I do miss my friends enormously at the moment, especially because I am pregnant again and don't have anyone around to make a fuss of me. And yes, I do get jealous of people who have family support but I've never had it so that only rears its head occasionally when I'm just feeling like I need a break.

My girlfriend's sister moved up to the Sunshine Coast and her parents were going to follow her but then changed their minds because they felt that while their granddaughters would appreciate them being around while they were little, give them another 5 years or so and they wouldn't have much interest in spending time with their grandparents...so they opted to stay in Sydney. That might be a factor to consider, your DDs are 8 years old now, how much longer are they going to be really keen to spend time with their grandparents...when they start making friends and want to hang out with them on weekends grandparents will naturally take a backseat in their priorities.

I would say that by the time the 2 year contract in Melbourne is up you will know how you feel about being away from family and be able to make the decision.

It IS beautiful up here. DS says he has more fun up here than he did in Melbourne. We find it very relaxing, we love nipping down to the beach in late afternoons, the kids' swimming has improved tremendously, it's a slower pace of life, which is what DH in particular wanted his kids to experience, having grown up in a country town (but a good compromise for me who has only ever lived in a major metropolitan area up until now). I don't think we will look back at all once we are properly settled and have a proper social life developed. But there is always that "teething period" after a big move, and you have to push through that initial homesickness before you really know how you feel about a place.

we have done the opposite, years of living in different states/countries to grandparents, we have finally all managed to come together in the same state, and I wouldnt like to go back. The kids really need their grandparents, its a big consideration, if you are a close family

It sure is a hard decision.

Anyway so many points you say are so true.

Curly, how long ago did you move to sunshine coast? Were you close to your mum?

Sue

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Hi
I am new here, so l will do a bit of an intro.
I am 39, married and have twin girls who are now already 8 years old.
We have just moved away from where l have lived all of my life, to Melbourne which is for my husbands job. It is a 2 year contract and we are thinking of moving to sunshine coast at the end of this contract. But the delima l face, is my parents are going to be even further away from me than they are now. We are only 1 hour drive from them now, and we used to be around the corner, it has been very hard a times, knowing they are not just around he corner anymore. I miss them at times very much.
We've always had thoughts about moving to a warmer climate near the beach, but l just don't know if l can cope being away from family. I just feel like l am letting them down and depriving my girls of grandparents and myself which l do have pretty good relationship with them. My parents have done so much for us, more than any other parent l can think of. I just feel like torn and don't know which way is the best to go.
Can anyone here offer an kind of suggestions or share there views? It would be greatly appreciated.

Sue

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