An Irish woman recently returned from Australia has said she was warned to expect that she would ‘grieve parts of her life’ by others who had done the same. 

TikToker Andrea moved back to Ireland two weeks ago with her partner and two young children. 

On Lunchtime Live, she recalled that the couple moved out in 2019 because they wanted a “bit of an experience” before they settled down and had kids. 

“COVID happened,” she recalled. 

“We probably stayed a little bit longer than we initially intended; one year turned into two, turned into three. 

“Then all of a sudden you've an entire life and two kids.” 

Sydney, Australia. Picture by: Unsplash.com

Despite the fact their time in Australia was only ever meant to be temporary, Andrea said moving back “wasn’t an easy decision”. 

“It came down to a mix of head and heart,” she said. 

“Of course, family wanting to be around family, the support network of that, you know, nothing can replace grandparents, cousins and these uncles being around our kids.

“So, that was definitely one of the factors.” 

Another issue was that flying a family of four to Ireland every year is much more expensive than flying two people. 

Their parents are also getting older and find travel harder than they once did. 

Finally, they wanted their oldest to start school in Ireland. 

“My eldest is just coming up to three,” she said. 

“We had a window now between school, property and the rest; if we didn't kind of make the move that it was just going to get more complicated and harder.” 

Overall, Andrea believes it will be a “happy move for us”, but has been warned to expect that not everything will be easy. 

“I think there's been a lot of success stories of people coming back, reassuring me, you're going to struggle,” she said. 

“It's going to be hard; you're going to grieve parts of your life, but actually we're home, whatever it might be, six months, a year and we never looked back.”

Main image: A kangaroo in Australia. Picture by: Alamy.com.