Well Child 2 To 4 Months Mr #: Name: Fill & Download for Free

In 2002 I moved to Canada with my heavily pregnant wife and 3-year-old daughter, looking for a new life and yeah, maybe a better standard of living. I’d been working in various Tech Support roles in London, earning a little over £50k a year, so we were doing pretty well for ourselves. I’d been in contact with agencies in Toronto and they’d said I’d have no problems finding work and with my experience, etc., I should expect $80k+, so not quite the same, but close enough to make it work.But things didn’t quite work out as we planned… Without a degree, my experience was irrelevant. I hadn’t needed a degree to fix computers in the UK, but it turns out that in Canada, I did. So all those $80k a year jobs vanished from view, and I ended up at a temp agency earning minimum wage ($6.85 an hour) moving things around a factory. My wife got part-time night-shift work to boost the family income to the point we didn’t starve and between us we were able to provide 24-hour child care to our young children.After 8 years I’d had enough, and we came home. I do miss Canada massively, but TBH we’re doing better here now than we were doing there.So why the personal pre-amble? My opinion on the standard of living in Canada is heavily coloured by my experiences - and struggling every day to pay rent and feed my family doing lower-paid temp work certainly makes my experiences different from someone else who went straight into a good job from day one. So now you know why.I‘ll focus on the big, important concerns - let’s start with housing.Houses are generally bigger than in the UK, but a lot of that is because many houses in Ontario have basements, and that’s true across a lot of North America. I converted mine into an extra bedroom, a workshop for me and a large playroom for the kids. But rents are also a little more in comparable areas - a family home in Toronto will cost about the same to rent as one on the outskirts of London, but elsewhere, you’ll probably pay more in Canada. So bigger houses, but they cost a little more.Here’s the house we finally managed to buy. $150k in 2005. Big enough for a family of 4 and detached as you can see, which is nice, but not really “better” than the same money would have got you in a comparable British city. Middlesbrough, perhaps?Bills. Phone bills are cheaper, cable costs about the same, hydro (electric & water) is a little more than the UK - but that’s probably due to the cost of running the AC for 4+ months of the year. DIY tends to be cheaper in Canada - Home Depot definitely beats B&Q, so keeping your house running is cheaper if you’re a bit handy.Cars are obviously larger on average, but that certainly doesn’t make them better. Sure there are lots of pickup trucks around, but mostly in Canada it’s cars, mini-vans and modern cross-over style SUVs. New cars are cheaper than the UK, and quite a bit cheaper, but used cars are not. In the UK, you can spend £500 a get a decent runner with a long MOT that might last a few years. No chance of that in Canada. Remember that Top Gear episode where they tried to buy cheap cars in Florida for under $1,000? Yeah, that’s real. Anything even driveable decent is $2,000 + taxes (don’t get me started on that!) and when every penny counts, it’s quite an eye-opener. Ever heard of an Eagle Vista Wagon? Nope. Neither had I, but that’s what I drove for two years because it’s all I could afford.Here she is - what a beauty!Car running costs seem cheap because gas is cheap, but car insurance is not. Oh, so not! Even after several years of driving experience in Canada, insurance cost several times what I paid in the UK. Doing the maths, driving in Canada only gets cheaper than the UK, once you start doing more than 12,000 miles a year. That’s when the cheaper cost of gas drops the cost per mile below UK levels.Food is not really cheaper than the UK, even if you shop at Walmart all the time. Yeah, portions are larger, everything has more sugar in it, and quality is objectively poorer - although I’m not sure how that affects the standard of living - but your overall food budget will be about the same. Take-out is marginally cheaper I guess, but restaurants are probably a little dearer when you factor in the almost mandatory tipping.Appliances are about the same. You do get a bigger fridge for your buck, but then your bottles of juice and bags of milk take up more space, so it evens out. Computers, TVs, all that stuff, about the same cost.But all this is just financial stuff. Basically I’m saying that overall, things probably cost the same. So I’d say it’s pretty even so far.What really matters in standard of living are the non-materialistic things…Holidays. Brits get 20 days minimum, but in Canada, I got 10 days a year, and only managed to get up to 15 days after 4 years’ service. Might be different for higher-paying white-collar jobs, but down at the low end of the employment market, it’s a big difference. That’s a big ol’ win for the UK.Countryside/open spaces. Canadians seem to think that 12:00 is a good time to hit the beach, which meant we had three hours pretty much to ourselves on our trips to the beach, and that’s bloody wonderful I can tell you. Then the natives turn up with trucks full of meat for their big BBQ and we head off into the woods. Big forests, open spaces, and a lot of them can be quite quiet. It’s different, it’s wonderful, but is it better? Spend a morning hiking to the top of Snowdon, or take an Autumn drive around Scotland. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the UK is just as beautiful to my eye as Canada - a little smaller and more crowded, but just as lovely.TL;DR - it all comes down to money. If you were to get a similarly paid job in Canada, would you notice a difference? Probably not. In some areas, yes, but in others definitely not. All depends on what’s important to you.But if, like me, you slipped down the ladder a few rungs, then you’d definitely notice a drop in your standard of living.Thanks for reading this far :-)Edit #1: This was my first ever answer on Quora and I’m blown away by the response. 5k likes in 24 hours is amazing. I never expected that. Thanks to you all.And just to clear up a couple things I noticed in the comments - I wasn’t on minimum wage for 8 years! I ended up with a not horrible $50k working in the auto industry and we did OK for a while… until 2008 of course. That kick-started the spiral that led me back to Blighty. Cheers all.Edit #2: Not even two weeks in and over 8k likes. Amazing! Thank you all so much for your likes and comments. If I’d have known this answer would be so well received, I would have spent more than 10 minutes on it, and maybe explained a little more.On the subject of “checking before I moved”, well… I did. I contacted several agencies in Toronto, sent them my CVs, had productive chats on the phones, all over the course of several months starting before I even booked our flights. They all said the same thing: “Yeah, there’s loads of jobs, with your experience you’ll do fine.” I believed them…I went to visit my first choice agency - the conversation went something like this:Her: “Ah yes, come in Mr. Hall. Let’s have a look at you resumé. Yes… yes… all looks good… yes… oh, you don’t mention your degree.”Me: “Um… I don’t have one. I mean, I went to University, but I didn’t actually graduate.”Her: “Oh. Oh dear… And why was that?”My internal monologue: “Because I decided to be rock star instead, OK? And how did that work out, Stevie? Shut-up - she’s looking at me funny because I’m mumbling to myself!”Me: “Uh… personal tragedy, um thing, you know… Is that going to be problem?”30 minutes later I’m standing on a cold Toronto sidewalk crying into a box of Timbits and wondering if I should have accepted that $8 an hour job at a cat-food factory she finally offered me after I begged…Cheers folks.

We have not even completed 4 months together.I am CA and 31, she is 28 and MBA from IIM-A. We live in Gurgaon.We were hitched in an arrange marriage. But deeply in love after our engagement.We and our parents as well thought, that we both are finance nerds so we will come along quite smoothly but what I am experiencing after marriage is little different.ProblemsShe is sleeping all the time whenever I see her. She is too lazy to be with me. She is always working from home. I really don't know what kind of HR policies allow that.I am an organised guy, she just create a mess all the time, from the day she entered my apartment till today not even once I find thing where it is supposed to be.She spends all her money on bags and perfumes and then ask for mine money. I don't really care what you do with your money but at least don't spend my hard earned money for some useless fragrances.She fought with my maid and my maid left work, now neither she is finding new maid nor she is even worried about our house. It's looks like a storage place.I am a guy who spend wisely, I do make good money and she as well but that does not mean we have to spend 25,000 monthly on outings. Those 25,000 is from my pocket only.I believe in investing not just saving, she being MBA is so much afraid of investing in stocks.I don't need her money. But sometimes I think if anything goes wrong financially she we never be in position to give helping hand.I can never have a kid with this kind of girl she cannot be a responsible mother and whole responsibility of kid as well would be on me.I know nothing of my problems are big enough to regret my marriage but when you add up all those problem it's quite a lot.The day she entered my house every thing is going wrong, people are falling apart. I don't know why she always create unnecessary fuss. Even she cannot be blamed completely.This fault is of arrange marriage. ArrangeMarriage is an outdated concept of earlier time when all people use to be naive and simple and truthful. It's not for present world emotions are really complex and people too are not that much straight, pretty much everything is unreliable.I feel I am the only one who is dragging this marriage she already threatened me with divorce once. I think eventually we will get divorced but the question is how much time would it take. And even if I get divorced it would be my loss only financially and emotionally.Thank god I have done proper paperwork before getting married.Edit 1 : I have read comments including some sensible and useful comments like Miss Reena Antony.I think many people have misunderstood me. No it's not decided to file for divorce now. I value love and affection more than anyone my mother is single parent and due to some reason I have been with my mother after age of 8. I have stayed in boarding schools, PGs, hostels and now appartment always alone. Believe me no one can appreciate companionship more than me.I am a guy from middle class family and worked really hard to where I stand today. She belongs to higher middle class family. I am making good money now and please let's accept this fact that girls get fascinated by money. If I would be some average money making guy she won't have even looked at me. This is how girls brain is wired (95% and exceptions are always there).Someone said she would have worked really hard to earn her degree. So do l. Actually my degree requires a lot more labour and hard work then hers and that's why my degree is much more valued and respected than hers. I am a CA.Many people wants to know about paperwork that I have done.Affidavit: I have an affidavit stating I have taken no dowry and all marriage expenses were allocated appropriately. Signed by her father and mother and herself. This will save me from false dowry case. I have not taken a penny from them what's wrong in documentation of this fact. Yeah we had healthy discussion but having knowledge of law and knowing law is on knees for married women and no law to protect man, under no circumstances I agreed to take marriage ahead. She being the only child her father had issues that everything will go to her eventually. To which I have mentioned in affidavit that Mr. me have no knowledge of her ensisteral property and I m noware involved or have knowledge of father daughter givings and takings.Alimony : I being a CA have obviously have not disclosed my all financial information to anyone not even her. She have knowledge of my nearly 20–25% assets and money. So if things go wrong she would demand money keeping in mind my 25% wealth. To which I may negotiate and bring her down to 4–5 %. Which she don't deserve but I can spend that much for my peace of mind. Monthly maintenance can't be skipped but she as well makes good money, may be she won't ask for it or court may think it's not appropriate.Domestic violence case : I m exposed to this risk. Laws are pretty much in favour of women but I don't think she is that bad human that she would lower her level so much just for revenge or money. Still in worst case scenario Its part of my job to visit HC (DELHI) or SC for some or the other reason atleast once a week. It really doesn't bothers me if I have to visit any other court as well. In fact many lawyers including some senior one are in good touch with me they would be more than happy to land me a favor. But if things go to this extent I will make her regret this.Edit 2 :Can't resist replying to this commentSomeone said I am a husband who expects my wife to do things whatever comes out of my mouth. Well that would be a dream come true. But nothing is happening like that here and I as well don't expect her to do so. She is not my servent. Your are just suffering from a disease called feminism it's quite common now a days.Edit 3 :Someone said affidavit would not help if she latter accuses that they started demanding dowry after marriage.See in court of law the burden to prove is on plaintiff (person who is making accusation and not on defendant ( except where government is plantiff, you have to prove your innocence). These are misconceptions amoung general public that you will be deemed guilty that's not how law works sir. For provings you need evidences. And what made you think that I am such a stupid that I won't consider these aspects before drafting an affidavit.I make all expenses from my card including the money she takes from me every month. And not even a penny from her account goes to any of household expenses or my account. Indian judiciary is not as idiot or blind as you think sir.Under no circumstances she would be able to prove that I use to take money or demand money. It would be nothing more than an accusation.No i have no plans of getting divorced now, this is my new year resolution that I will make this marriage work. Hope I succeeded.

1.A policeman in San Francisco scolds a man for not wearing a mask during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, 19182.In 1969, When black Americans were still prevented from swimming alongside whites, Mr. Rogers decided to invite officer Clemmons to join him and cool his feet in a pool, breaking a well-known color barrier.3. Incredible photograph of a German soldier going against direct orders to help a young boy cross the newly formed Berlin Wall after being separated from his family, 19614. Charles Thompson greets his new classmates at public school No. 27 in September 1954, less than four months after the supreme court ruled that racial segregation was unconstitutional. Charles was the only African-American child in the school. Photo By Richard Stacks For The Baltimore Sun5. Soldiers returning home from WWII, 19456.May 20, 1910: The nine kings of Europe photographed together for the first and only time7.Job Hunting In 1930's8. A lone man refusing to do the Nazi salute, 19369.Nikola Tesla sitting in his laboratory with his “Magnifying Transmitter”10. Austrian boy receives new shoes during WWIIHope my answer is helpful.Check my profile to see more answers.Mark Wilson