We have lived here for 2 years have a 3 year old and 6 month baby.  It is more limited in meeting people.  In th UK it is easy meeting people.  Here you have to be more proactive.  But after 6-9 months she has 5 little friends from Greece, England Spain, and Slovakia.  She also goes to pre school for 3 months now.  Of cousrse at this age its very easy for them to learn the language and therefor make new friends.  Many Cretans are closed and keep socialising withinn the family.  I still dont have any Cretan friends.  All my Greek friends are from Athens or other islands.  They are very friendly but keep to themselves at the same time.  hope this helps

Hi baccybabs

As a matter of interest, do you live in your village all year around?

The only reason I asked is that visting here as a tourist, even if you have a home, is a very different experience to living here. You can find that people who are extremely friendly to a visitor can be very different to a resident. I always get slightly disturbed by the many comments on forums to the tune of 'Cretans are such wonderful/friendly people'. Cretans are people and like any other people in the world there are good ones and bad ones. It is the Cretans themselves that come up with coments like 'don't trust anybody here' and 'be careful we will shake you by the hand and stab you in the back at the same time'. Over time you learn as you do wherever you live, to know who you can trust and who you cannot.

We are moving over to crete with all our 5 children, hopefully pretty soon and I have the same concerns.  We hope to move to Tavronitis.  Boy, 2, girls 4, 8, 12 and another boy 11.  Would you be any where near us?

limnes wrote on 24. Mar 2007 at 15:29:

fletcher1 wrote on 24. Mar 2007 at 18:09:

Please think very carefully about the children and their education. The younger two will probably have no problem as children of that age seem to pick up languages very easily when mixing with native speakers of their own age. The older children, if they don't speak Greek well could encounter problems at school. Generally, the Greek education system does not make many concessions to foreigners. Lessons are in Greek so non-Greek speakers will not be able to learn much, if anything and special classes for learning Greek are not provided by State schools. Some children may also feel isolated from their peers and could even be picked on as 'outsiders'.

This site's former owner's children encountered problems. To see what their experience was click the link at the top of this page " in Crete".

I'm not saying 'don't do it' but, rather, before you come to 'Live the dream' please think carefully about your children, their ability to cope and, ultimately, their happiness.

Filippos.

Some excellent advice/information there from suzanne and Filippos, I think. 

We hadn't realized until we lived here quite how strong Cretan family ties are: blood is everything, it seems.  While this no doubt has many positive effects, it does mean that no matter how friendly people here are to you, you will always be an outsider.  Some will still include you in their "parea" (circle of friends), and help you when necessary, while others will keep you at arm's length or discriminate against you simply because of your otherness.  If you are from one of the old EU countries, your standing will be higher than if you're an Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian or Ukrainian.  But you will always be "xenoi" or foreigners.  A Londoner I met in Skye told me a similar story about her experience there, so it's not just Crete.

Regarding the children, I know a woman who was moved from one culture to another at the age of eleven and never really "recovered" in some important ways.  She found her whole world turned upside down and, at a time when puberty makes everyone's life challenging, she was without friends or familiarity with her environment.  She has made a great success of her life but still struggles with certain issues, like belonging, and wishes she had been able to finish growing up in the place of her birth.  By the way, she did stay within the English-speaking world, so didn't have to contend with a new language!  She is one example only, I know, but I do think it's illustrative of what can happen.  My own experience of people of 12 or thereabouts is that their friends become extremely important to them.  I've know young teenagers feel able to talk about personal or difficult issues with their friends when they felt they couldn't with their own family.  To take a child out of this kind of support system, at this age, does not seem wise, in my opinion. 

Of course, a lot depends on the particular child and family, and it could be that yours will prove the exception.  We're not all the same (thank goodness!) .  But please give it a lot of careful thought.  In a few more years they will be through puberty & through school, and perhaps it's a reasonable sacrifice for parents to make, to delay living their dream so that others may not have to pay a high price for it.  My tuppence worth - hope it helps.