Best age to "repatriate"

[imolina]

We are naturalized Canadian citizens; we lived there for about 7 years before moving to the middle east to work. I am Colombian and my husband is from India but he likes Canada, and his sister also lives there.
Our children are 4 & 7 years old; they go to a British school, their accent is a mixed of different accents; they are learning some Arabic, and they go to the library when the muslim kids go for Islamic studies, and learn social studies about the country which is not much.
Anyway, we are thinking we should move to Canada before certain age (maybe junior high school) so they can pick up the accent, learn about Canada, go to Sunday school, learn more sports, volunteer, and get ready to go to University in Canada; and also be more prepared for real life, here people have cleaners, nannies, teenagers don't go out much alone, not much value on money, etc, I feel it is a bubble.

Parents with older children, what age do you think it would be ideal?, hopefully we will be FI then...

They are Canadians, but they have only been there for 10 days during his aunty's wedding.

[Freedomin5]

We are Canadian. DD was born in China where we currently live. We spend summers in Canada. She goes to a local school and we plan to enrol her in a Hong Kong international school following a British curriculum. I would say it’s best to leave before they hit the high school years. We will probably repatriate when she is between Gr. 4-6. After that, we feel she needs a stable friend group who can be a good influence for her, and she needs time to adjust to being in Canadian society. We do spend over a month every summer in Canada, but being on vacation at the cottage is different from daily life.

We try to keep our life abroad as “Canadian” and down to earth as possible — no driver, only part time ayi for child care (more like a babysitter), no other household help, no multiple exotic vacations a year.

Worst time to repatriate? The summer between junior and senior year of high school.

[Goldielocks]

Come here for grade 8, 9 or 10 and stay through high school.  There are a LOT of students who do this in the school system.  (Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto in particular).  Your kids will blend right in, especially if they are fluent in English, but it will still work fine if they need extra help with English.  It is so common.

Those students that complete at least 3 years of high school here, and graduate, look like every other Canadian graduate, especially to the universities.

For you as adults, the best time to come back is around age 53... so that you will qualify for at least 50% of the Old Age Pension, and even if you move away again after, can receive it overseas because you have lived 20 years as a resident in Canada.  Remember taxes are high here during your working years (because of schools, parks, security that is paid for), but it is pretty much REVERSE TAXES to our seniors who have lived here for many years.   My expat, now 70 year old uncle did not understand that fact, until i pointed it out, while trying to get him to come home and be resident here.