Well, although I quite liked both of the places I grew up in, I’m not sure I’d want to raise my kids there.
First, Bakersfield, CA. Who wants to live in Bakersfield anyway? It’s not hot there until it’s 110 degrees. Yick. There are nice things about it, really, but the weather, the sprawl and smog, and the growing crime rate are drawbacks. My folks were quite glad to move to:
Santa Maria, CA. Much better weather, pretty near some nice beaches. But the schools were fairly dismal, and the general level of education/sophistication is pretty low (very nice people, good to live with–just not a lot of amazing conversation). But my best friend lives there now, and it’s really a perfectly decent place to grow up in, except for the one major drawback, which is that apparently everyone is somewhat nuts. It’s like watching a soap opera all the time, where the characters do really strange things sometimes.
Where we live now is where we hope to stay and raise our kids. Chico is a great place to live, I love it, I want to stay here forever. Unless DangerDad is suddenly offered a work contract for a year in another country, or something.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I wouldn’t mind raising my kids there, except that perhaps they wouldn’t live in the same area I did. Old San Juan would be nice (but pricey), Sabana Llana, where I lived… I think you have to be born and raised there to show any appreciation and longing for it.
I grew up in a very small village (100 people or so) in southern France. Actually I can’t really fathom what it could be like to have been brought up in a town or city
There are a lot of advantages like the child being able to go outside all day long without supervision, builing huts in the woods or “dams” in the creeks, riding his bicycle everywhere, etc…Everybody knowing you and the child, keeping an eye on him, and not being shy about chastizing him when he misbehave is also a good thing in my book though the kid might disagree. …
But there are also inconveniences like lack of activities, very few other kids to play with, a very closed minded mentality…
I wouldn’t consider actually raising a kid there plainly because I wouldn’t consider living there as an adult. I would be bored to death within weeks. Now, if it was only about the child, I think he would be better off there, on the overall. It would give him a freedom that very few kids can now enjoy. Once again, I can’t fathom how kids manage to survive locked behind a door or a fence, with totally planned schedules, etc…That’s a totally 'un-kidly" way to live, in my opinion.
Heh. You want rural? My highschool senior class totalled 18. Town population: 405.
And no, I would not raise kids there. A town that small means nothing for entertainment but drugs and sex. Seven out of the eleven girls in my class were pregnant or had given birth by the time we graduated.
I grew up in Miami, Florida, downtown by the Miami River. I had an interesting life growing up.
I moved, and my two sons grew up in a small Alabama town. There were more students in my high school (3,000) than the entire population of the town I live in now.
I think my boys had a happy life growing up here.
It’s all worked out. For myself I preferred interesting, but I’m glad my boys had happy.
My kids were raised in the town I was born in - a small town of about 2500. I have never regretted it a bit, having attended seven different schools K-12 myself. I feel it is important for kids to have a stable upbringing, even if it is just in their schooling (as it was in my kids’ case, being the children of divorced parents). Culture and activities are always within driving distance.
Hubby and I were both reared here and we’re doing the same with our children. Both of our parents live here, all of my hubbies siblings and one of my siblings. Big enough city to get in trouble if that’s what the kids chose, but small enough that someone we know would give us a heads up before serious harm could come to them.
The only reason our doors were locked when I was a child was to keep us kids from going outside when we were sleepwalking. Things have changed quite a bit and our doors are always locked at night.
We are an interracial family through adoption and sometimes we bump into leftover attitudes, both from black and white folk. I’ve often wondered if living up north would be better for our family, but from what I’ve read and learned second hand is that racism is just pushed further underground but still as prevelant.
I grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, and if I ever end up with rugrats, I’d definitely consider raising them there.
At just under 75,000 people, it’s big enough to have any amenities you could ever need, but still small enough that it doesn’t feel like a “big city.” It’s situated right in between Edmonton and Calgary, close enough to get to either major center in about an hour and a half.
Plus, it has the most beautiful city-wide parks and trails system that I’ve ever seen.
I grew up in western Kentucky, near Paducah. My high school had about 400 kids or so; 'bout 100 kids per grade.
I’d raise my kid there if I HAD to. It’s generally safe, the climate’s okay, the economy doesn’t suck and it’s pretty. There are worse places to raise a child.
But the people there, compared to West Virginians, truly suck; so I wouldn’t be happy about moving back there.
I grew up and still live in Altoona PA. Its a town full of white trash, heroin addicts, drunks, hypocritical christian fundies, boneheads and republicans . I have a 2 year old, and one on the way, and if I could, if I had any place to go, I’d get my family the hell out of this shithole of a city. I hate the thought of sending my kids to the Altoona public school system.
Bonfield would be a great place to raise a kid. Good schools, small enough that everyone knows each other, and a swimming hole in the summer. Virtually no crime. Older kids and teenagers would probably find it boring though.
Brewster is better for older kids. It has housing developments similar to Bonfield and an actual downtown within bicycling distance.
There’s plenty of trees and woods to walk around in. There’s the lake to swim in and go boating and fishing on of course. It’s 3 hours to the beach and an hour and a half to the mountains. The weather is damn near perfect all year round. Very mild in the spring, summer, and fall, and the winter is usually good for a snow. It also has the benefit of being on the east coast so car travel is not out of the question to places like Atlanta, Washington DC, and Disney World. I had a wonderful time growing up there.
Despite all this I don’t think I would raise my kids there. There is an overwhelming sentiment in the population that education is something to look down on. If you read books or talk about academics, politics, and things of that nature you get made fun of. The public schools are absolutely atrocious in funding and quality of faculty and staff.
My kids will definitely visit there to see where their “roots” are but I would prefer not to give them the unfair disadvantage of being raised in an intellectual and cultural sinkhole.
I grew up in a small town (pop. about 1200) in Texas, about 85 mile north (along the coast) of Corpus Christi. In the 21 years since I left there, I’ve been back just three times, and would only move back if it became necessary for some reason. I definitely don’t want to raise my kids there!
John Carter, out of curiosity (and if you don’t mind my asking) what area of Alabama are you from? I am in the southern portion myself, living in a small town which has been named as “one of the best 100 small towns in America.” I can’t imagine why–it’s an OK place to live, but not exactly tourist material!
I grew up in Dardanelle, AR, pop. ~3500. 500 kids in high school, 88 in my grad class. It has some positive aspects, however, I was frustrated at the limitations of the place growing up and wouldn’t raise my kids there unless some dire circumstances came about.
I live in Arlington, VA now and my kids enjoy access to things that I never dreamed of growing up, entertainment and education-wise.
i grew up and still live in omaha, nebraska. i raised both of my daughters here. we benefit from a friendly small town atmosphere in an urban setting. low cost of living, low crime rate and a pretty good public school system.
before starting a family though, i did move out of the neighborhood where i grew up. the low crime rate mainly takes place in that neighborhood.
I grew up in Glendive, Montana and it’s still a good place to grow kids. There is a problem with methamphetamine though - including a murder committed by the kids of people I was friends with in high school.
Other than that it’s still a great place to be and raise a kid. Example - I recently play golf with Justin (12 yo) who’s father and I knew each other since we were 5. Justin had no idea who I was, but he was unfailingly polite, courteous and a good fella to golf with. His parents drop him off at the golf course on their way to work and either pick him up later or he catches a ride home with someone in the afternoon.
Most fun was that Justin knows all the “old guys” who golf every day and would chat with those we ran into. So here you have a 12 year-old who’s on a first name, conversational basis with a bunch of people old enough to be his grandparents. I think it would be hard to find that kind of connection in a big city.
Well I was born and raised in… Tucson. And I hated it and would not want to raise my kids there…
…but the reason I hate it is because it’s in the middle of the freakin’ desert and it’s hotter than hell and utterly awful in every way climate-wise. It’s also uglier than a baboon’s ass warts. As a city goes, though, it’s quite nice. Reasonable amount of things to do, decent liberal subculture… I like a lot of things about it as a city far better than the mid atlatnic suburbs I now live in. But I gotta say, I prefer the grass and the trees and the rain and the snow that I get here…
I grew up in a affluent, non ethnically diverse suburb of Vancouver (in the 70’s). As a young kid, say until I was 13 or 14, it wasn’t tooo bad. There was a lot of green space, both parks and real forest that you could go and hang out in. Plus my house had a creek in the back yard where you could catch fish. In those pre-safety freakout days we could be let out in the morning… come in for lunch (or not, if we’d packed one)… and then not come back til dinner. All without worrying our parents (too much).
On the down side, it was pretty bland as far as Culture went… very white, upper middle class, and suburban. As I got into my later teens I found it to be a very boring place to live. If I wanted to go downtown, the last bus home was at 11:00, so you couldn’t even stay out for a late movie. Also, since the cops had little to do other than make sure the property values didn’t suffer, they spend an inordinate amount of time and energy hassling teenagers. The real criminals were living in $1million+ houses and paying the cops wages (they were at that point the highest paid police force in Canada). I guess I ended up with a pretty large chip on my shoulder.
So, all together, no, I wouldn’t bring up a kid where I was brought up. Hell, I don’t even like going back there to visit my sister.
I grew up in Chillicothe, Ohio. Although I liked it at the time and remember it fondly, I would like my children to have a better education and more opportunities (music, travel, languages, etc.) than are available there.
I grew up in a tiny town in northeast Iowa, population around 900. I had 36 kids in my class. I would rather chew glass than live there again, let alone raise my kids there. The cliques, the narrow-mindedness, the boredom, the nothing to do but drink and screw…blah.
With any luck, I’ll be marrying my current lovemuffin and raising my children in Redding, CA, which seems an okay place to be from my visits.
