Chicago Family of 4 maybe? moving to London

Hello all!  This forum has been great.  Just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. 

I am a 29yo married mother of 2 dd, ages 6 and 3.  My husband was recently offered a position near Fleet Street in London.  We are considering moving after Christmas this year from the Oak Park/River Forest area of Chicago.

We want to move for the career opportunity for my husband and for the opportunity to travel.  My husband and I are pretty adventurous and like to travel together.  Moving to Europe has always been a dream.

We are, however, apprehensive about making our budget work-like EVERYONE who moves to London !;)  We don't know quite how to make the school situation work for our kids.  We have toy sized dogs-3 - that we'd like to bring.  I have a lot of research to do over the next 2 weeks while we try to make a decision.

Thank you so much to everyone who posts on this forum.  It has been making such an impact on me.

Hello, RosAm. Welcome to the forum!

London is eye-wateringly expensive, but if you can make it work...well, chance of a lifetime.

Bringing your pets over is MUCH easier than it used to be (back in the day, they put the poor things in literal, physical quarantine for six months!).

Anyhow, all your answers can be found here.

LoL @ eye-wateringly expensive

Welcome to the board, RosAm

Thank you so much for the welcome.

It is all finally confirmed!  We are headed to the UK immediately after Christmas. 

Congratulations! Just after Christmas is the low point of the year (IMNSHO), Christmas is over, the weather is lousy, people are hibernating. Then it bursts into Spring and it's spectacular.

In the country, anyway. I've only ever been in London in the Fall and Winter.

Welcome RosAm, I hope everything works out well for you and your family

How exciting! Congratulations.

I love London. There is something that is just so thrilling about the place, although my husband completely disagrees - several years of commuting there for work beat the awe right out of him.

Welcome!  I don't have pets, but aren't the rules changing in January? I think it's getting much easier after that with smaller waiting times--go to the pets board on here, they can help a lot.  What a great adventure for your family!  You should love it.

Good luck to your family!  We moved our two children (now 11 and 13) here almost two years ago, and our dog and cat about a year and a half ago.  While the animals didn't have to do quarantine here, we had to wait to bring them because there was a crazy six month wait AFTER the results of a blood test confirming that they were adequately vaccinated against rabies.  Do the pet research first, as if it is the same as it was a couple of years ago, and it probably isn't, you want to get started right away!  It cost more to move the pets than the kids, and we have not regretted a day of it.  (But, our dog is over 100 pounds, so that may not be true for you.)

School is very different here.  Your kids will not likely get into a school straight away, unless you go private.  Do that research, too. 

I remember the anxiety of preparing for this move.  I wish you all the best, and if I (and all the others on this forum) can be of any help, ask! 

Good luck to you and your husband! We moved here in 2009 w 3 boys (then 1, 3, and 7).  We love it!  The schools, where we are, in the midlands, are very good.  They were brilliant at helping the kids transition.  Write a letter explaining your circumstances to the county council where you will be living.  That is how we got the kids into a school so quickly. They were so very helpful. Be prepared to say goodbye to thier little American accents though.  I took ours 6 mos to speak 'English.'  Now they look at me like I talk funny. (My husband is English.) We also brought our dog.  I couldn't give you very much info on that except that I agree with getting started with the rabies titer ASAP. That's what the hold up was for us.  We moved before she did, because of the 6 mos thing.

Hi RosAm so happy for you and your family you are going to love London!

School is very different here.  Your kids will not likely get into a school straight away, unless you go private.  Do that research, too. 

do not mean to hijack another's thread but this statement concerned me as our son will be just finishing his sophomore year of high school.

Why would he (they) not get into school right away??

Hello everyone!  Just kind of checking back in.....

We made our first scouting trip and loved it.  It looks like we are heading to the Golders Green/Hampstead Garden Suburb/ Finchley area.  We found a school we love and we were given the same warning, our daughter will probably not get into the school when we move in January.  We are starting to look into for-pay school- still can't keep it straight! 

All of the schools we were interested in are totally full, but housing is available in the desired catchment areas for the 2011-2012  school year.  we are just going to eat the cost of private school if we cant get dd into an appropriate "State" school.

Still haven't sold our house in the states, still so much job stress but I find I have a pep in my step despite all that.  The energy is London grabbed me.  Winding things down here is going to be difficult, but I am inspired to take the next step!

RosAm

And now for something completely....unoriginal.

I started a blog yesterday.  My first time ever, so forgive me if it stinks.

http://countdowntoteatime.blogspot.com/ [nofollow]