Hi Poppie
I wish you well with your dreams
800 euro;s a month though is not enough to live on with a small child, with rent, car, food, electricity, clothes, medicines and health care, medicines are charged here for children as well as for adults. and prices are not cheap at the chemists, to see a dr costs us 35 euro's a time etc so you need to aim higher
my advice would be to learn the Cypriot language first before you come out to help you get a better job than shop work, saying that shop work itself requires you to be able to speak more than English!
People over here tend to have to work more than 1 job to get through financially...... hours are very long 12 plus hours per day every day. and the wages are low.
You can be sacked on the spot for no reason, as there are no job laws here, I am not even sure that you can get sick pay if you get ill, and sadly lots of work in Paphos is seasonal.
I am going through this with my own daughter and grandaughter right now.........we have set aside a time table of 18 months- 2 years plus to learn the language, and for her to finish her degree first, thus ensuring better paid, more reliable work, we have also told her to aim for earnings of @ 1800 euro's per month to live a comfortable life, yes there are jobs out there for that kind of money, but they are few, 800 Euro's a month , if you want a life as well and not be struggling day to day is too low.
We take out Christmas shoe boxes to the children of poor families on Christmas Eve around Paphos. For those with no money it is a hard life. They live in poverty as there are no benefits here, and some of the homes that we saw where hovels and cold. There are many people here who are struggling on a daily basis to get by. Seeing a childs face light up at a small shoe box of Christmas presents and a chocolate santa, is a very sobering sight to see, as these people and children have so little.
My advice to you is the same as I have given to my own daughter, don;t rush, take your time and prepare well so that you can then have a wonderful life here
all the best