Have you ever thought about moving to a foreign country? What were your reasons?

My husband used the same two adjectives to describe his grandmother as my cousin David used to describe his mom, which were overbearing and domineering.  (My grandmother-in-law lived with my husband and my M-I-L until my husband was 13, but obviously he wasn’t my husband back then.)

David’s brother had a different reaction to their mom.  He lives in her basement, is overweight and has never had a relationship.  He has a crappy job which is improvement.  At least he followed our advice and got a job after the COVID lockdowns when employers were hiring anybody with a pulse and paying a lot more to hire them.

This post was edited by Livvie at December 22, 2023 8:17 AM MST

I think this stuff is fascinating! I wonder if schools have gotten smart enough to touch on family dynamics and how they can impact our personal relationships and entire lives in Health classes in middle or high school? Of course, it could do more harm than good, I suppose. And it's unlikely that many teens would be emotionally mature or intelligent enough to even comprehend it. I have heard that schools are incorporating more of the important aspects of social and emotional education, though. Things that many children aren't exposed to at home, like tolerance and acceptance. It's apparently a sore spot with some parents - the ones who prefer to practice and teach intolerance and non-acceptance in their homes.

I'll think the best for your family! Does your cousin, David, get to see your other cousin in Argentina? 



This post was edited by SavvyAnsley at May 7, 2023 3:47 PM MDT

I had health class in high school which was all about physical health and the physical health of babies and children, proper nutrition and all of that.  We even had robobabies.  My partner for that project was a dead beat dad, so he definitely wasn’t mature enough to comprehend it.  However, how not to screw up kids beyond repair was something that was just never discussed.

Martina and her little brother go over David’s house all of the time.  David‘s married and has a teen son and a teen daughter.  I got to see all of them last year when they came to the US to get their COVID shots, so that was the first time I met Martina’s little brother and David’s family.  David and his family spent the month in Florida but they went to Minnesota for a few days to see his mom and his brother, so that’s when I went to see them.  I loved seeing David again because the last time I saw him was when I was a real little kid.  However, when he, his family and his mother were in the same room together, the temperature dropped like 30°.

There are some things that David’s mom and my grandmother-in-law had in common.  David’s mom absolutely hates his wife.  My husband’s grandma absolutely hated me.

Martina and her brother spent two weeks in Colorado and two weeks with me. This post was edited by Livvie at May 7, 2023 3:47 PM MDT

Interestingly, our 'child development' class was part of home ec class, which was 100% girls. We had a sack of flour and no 'father' whatsoever! I suppose that was appropriate prep for a good number of us, one way or another. Hahaha!

That's fantastic that they have family connections down there, and that you got to visit with them. And good that David visited with his mom, despite the obvious discomfort. Family relationships and dynamics are often complicated.  

The family lives in Luján, BA.  I visit David and Camila often. Their house is 77 kilometres from my house. I sometimes go to their house for Christmas.

Nobody in my family will ever forget our cousin, Jenny, who is David's mother. She visited us when I was a kid. My family took her shopping because she had only summer clothes. She came to visit in June. The weather was windy and snowy. She slipped and fell on the ice in the parking lot. She also had a fight with David during our holiday dinner. My parents poured him a glass of wine. He was 18 years old. She told him he wasn't allowed to drink wine or beer until he turned 21, but David defied her and he had the wine anyway.

When she went home, she left my parents, aunts and uncles a list of rules for David. Papá crossed out List of Rules for David. He wrote Lista de tareas de David over it. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at May 7, 2023 3:49 PM MDT

I think Canada’s immigration requirements are pretty strict, but while I’ve been to Canada, I never thought about moving there.  We do have one off-and-on AM user who did move there.  Ecuador sounds like a good choice.  I would want to have a house right on the equator just because I think it would be cool.  I’d want to put a line on the floor that’s the exact location.

This post was edited by Livvie at February 20, 2023 9:24 AM MST

I have a couple of photos of me straddling the Equator.  Quito is a beautiful city and modern.  We went to a mall there that rivals anything here in the USA.  We were able to get a taxi to take us anywhere in the city for around $5.00 so no need for a car.  

But I have never seen you cite Kittigate and his myriad redundancies like this.

And?
Go through the entire history and ye shall find such instances. 

Fine, Randy, I edited it.  You can call off the goons from the Division of Excess Verbosity of the Department of Redundancy now. This post was edited by Livvie at May 7, 2023 8:45 PM MDT

 

  Hold on, Dear! San Diego, California is not anywhere near your five-state area, so how will you and I . . . oh, wait a second. Grrrrrrr. 

:(

I understand the language but the cultural norms are a different matter entirely.  I know what they are, I just choose to ignore some of them because I’m weird like that.

Cultural norms can be nuanced. It can be the difference between being liked and accepted or not knowing why you are considered rude, pushy, or dumb. 

My F-I-L at one time wanted to move to New Zealand, but my husband said that his dad had very little understanding of other countries’ immigration requirements (a lot of Americans don’t), so since he wasn’t a citizen of another Commonwealth country, had no money, wasn’t in an in-demand profession and spotty work history, he was pretty much at the bottom of the list of people that they would allow to immigrate.

Australians and New Zealanders have reciprocal rights (unless you have a criminal record). You do need a passport but not a visa.

I've just switched departments at work, my new supervisor is from Manhattan. To a bloke from a country that has very little difference in accent all over the continent, the difference in accent in the same city is startling - Brooklyn sounds absolutely nothing like the island.

Which island? Manhattan is an island and Brooklyn and Queens are the western tip of Long Island. The Bronx is the only part of the city attached to the contiguous US.

Manhattan Island. The accent is different from any other I've heard.

I grew up around the corner from the Hotel St George in Brooklyn Heights.