poll: should i move to the country?

[stormbv]

Horses are a pain in the ass.

 

[mee987]

i live about 3 miles outside of the city on 30 acres, i grew up being an outdoors/sports/camping/treehouse kid and didnt get introduced to computers and all that bullshit until about 6 years ago... makes for a pretty well rounded kid in my opinion. when im at home dialup internet sucks, but luckily i get 5mbit internet at school 9 months a year.

you dont have to be 50 miles from civilization to get a nice 3 acre lot with surroundings that will satisfy your "out in the country" desire. living just outside a decent sized town may be a good way to go.

and being in the country doesnt have much to do with schools/funding, i live a few miles outside of town and the school district i attended was one of the best in the state.

and being in a small town doesnt make you an idiot. just because you dont have people being murdered in the alley down the street doesnt mean you are oblivious to crime and real world problems.

 

[stormbv]

Originally posted by: mee987
i live about 3 miles outside of the city on 30 acres, i grew up being an outdoors/sports/camping/treehouse kid and didnt get introduced to computers and all that bullshit until about 6 years ago... makes for a pretty well rounded kid in my opinion. when im at home dialup internet sucks, but luckily i get 5mbit internet at school 9 months a year.

you dont have to be 50 miles from civilization to get a nice 3 acre lot with surroundings that will satisfy your "out in the country" desire. living just outside a decent sized town may be a good way to go.

and being in the country doesnt have much to do with schools/funding, i live a few miles outside of town and the school district i attended was one of the best in the state.

and being in a small town doesnt make you an idiot. just because you dont have people being murdered in the alley down the street doesnt mean you are oblivious to crime and real world problems.

Excellent post.

Not all people who live in the country are ignorant hayseeds. I think kids who grow up in the country can turn out to be just as well-adjusted as those in a city. I had just as many opportunities to socialize, the only difference is that I had to be driven around (I was pretty jealous of town kids who could ride their bikes around town, though. ) Unlike the stereotype, not all of us are rubes.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Yeah, that damn big-town mentality of funded schools and things to do besides drink underage and get teenage girls pregnant. Go Hicksville!

- M4H

This girl I used to like... She lives in a town of 1000, at least during the summer (hence the lack of a relationship in person), and all she does is drink. Every night. Alot of days too. I got tired of being ignored because she was too busy drinking with her idiot redneck friends. It was somewhat amusing when her drunk cowboy friend named "Jakson" called me though... Fvcking dumbass asking me if I was getting plastered.

So instead of being drunk and having a gf you are now sober and are posting on ATOT. Not that great a deal eh?

 

[Ornery]

Suburbs have it all! Here's what's going on in the 'country life' village next door. They've got no decent shopping and no decebt tax base for their schools. We don't pay as much in taxes because of the retail and industry here. The schools are ranked among the top in the state, though it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest high school. Rural schools do not have the diverse classes offered by larger schools. Larger school districts can pay higher salaries, so better teachers are attracted there.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Living in the country isn't really good for the kids. They will grow up with a small town mentality, be naive about people trying to play them as such, probably have a worse education than they could is more urban areas (not inner city), and generally hate life.

Have you ever even been out of the city?

 

[eakers]

why not get a house in the country that is still very close to a suburb...

edit: i live in canada, i assume you have them there too.

and imo kids growing up in the country have a way different life than kids that grow up in the city and both have their pros and cons... like every teenager i ever met from the country pretty much went to bush parties, rode atvs and smoked pot all the time hehe

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Johnsquall
Living in the country isn't really good for the kids. They will grow up with a small town mentality, be naive about people trying to play them as such, probably have a worse education than they could is more urban areas (not inner city), and generally hate life.

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Stay in the suburbs. Kids who grow up in the country sure as hell don't like it. I can guarantee your kids won't. Seems like a great idea but you will only limit their education and ideas.

You guys are kidding right? Or just that ignorant? How the hell is living in the country not good for kids?? It's gotta be better then the inane suburban life ... besides, it doesn't sound like he's considering a ranch out in the middle of Montana with the nearest neighbor 20 miles away. More likely just a few miles out of town ... far enough out to have a real yard, and not some little postage stamp right up against your neighbors postage stamp. Room to play off of the streets.

I grew up in the country ... probably alot further out in the sticks then FoBoT is considering ... we didn't get a private phone line until I was about 10, or get cable until I was about 14 or 15 ... oh the horror

It was great ... ride bikes to friends houses to play football or baseball in the yard, no traffic on the roads. Forests & creeks nearby to explore or fish in, catch crawdads. When you got older, there was opportunity for afterschool & summer jobs at local farms that were, in my mind at least, far more interesting then slinging burgers in some fast food joints. Ussually paid better to.

I don't remember ever wishing to go live in the burbs or big city. Don't recall my friends wishing for that either. Quite the opposite actually. We were incredulous that anybody could live like that. Sure there was some drinking & drugs ... just like any highschool ... but I'd say far less common.

Since then, I had the opportunity to live in LA for 4 years ... I survived, but wouldn't go back by choice. I tutored some middle school kids while I was there ... wouldn't want that life for my kids ... gangs, drugs, malls, nintendo ... seemed like that was their whole life.

Horses are a complete PITA though

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Green Acres is the place to be.

 

[MrBond]

I wouldn't worry too much about poor school systems. Back home we had open enrollment, you could go to any neighboring school if you drove yourself there. I'm living on the outskirts (just barely, i can see the city limit sign from my driveway) of a town of a little more than 10,000 now, I'd raise my kids here in a heartbeat. There's practically NO crime to speak of, plenty of good schools, and lots to keep the kids entertained.

 

[Bryophyte]

I grew up on 52 acres of forest and pastureland, and cannot bear the thought of raising kids in an urban environment. Besides giving kids a great place to live, it gives them a feeling of "place" that I cannot accurately describe. It's peaceful, quiet, no neighbors to piss off if the kids get noisy, you can have some chickens and calves, dogs and cats can run around with the kids all day. Every kid should have a place all their own to explore nature, dissect wildflowers, dig in the dirt.

We own 11 acres of forest/pasture, and are eyeing the plots on either side of us. We want to have a bigger buffer from the outside world, and one of the pieces has a string of beaver ponds (it's like a dream world over there.) My kids are not picking up bad habits or getting mouthy out here. They only learn that when they go to school with the city kids

 

[vi edit]

I think it really just depends on the community/school district that you are moving into.

My home town was only 2000 people and my high school only had 220 students in it. I had a hayfield behind me, a corn field 1/2 mile down the road, and a huge pig farm another mile past that. I was on the outermost edge of the town, and more or less "country" for all intents and purposes. We had one of the best school districts in the county (and this includes big schools in Peoria that were 2,000 kids in the school). I'd say that my education was pretty good for the size of school, and I would like to think I am fairly level headed.

Sure you had your problems with drinking out on some backroad, but I don't see how that's any worse than the hard drug & drinking problems that many cities have. We had much less crime to worry about, had lots of room to play, and didn't have to pay the super inflated prices that you would have to in a big city.

I now live in a real nice area as well. Small town, about 5,000 people. Kids go to grade school and jr. high here in the small town. When they get into high school they go to one of the bigger city schools in nearby city about 15 minutes away. I've got three ponds all within a 5 minute walk of where I live. A mall within a 20 minute bike ride, and a metropolitan area of over 300,000 people within a half hour drive north or south. I'm seriously considering settling down in this area on the edge of town on a small acreage of like 3 acres or so.

Get most modern ammenities without the big city hastles.

 

[CraigRT]

country blows.. no conveniences.. nothing but hassles
having no hustle and bustle around me isn't worth having to drive distance for EVERYTHING and not being able to have high speed net access.. (true story)

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
country blows.. no conveniences.. nothing but hassles
having no hustle and bustle around me isn't worth having to drive distance for EVERYTHING and not being able to have high speed net access.. (true story)

Meh, read my post. You can get "country" atmosphere without having to drive a lot. In fact, I probably drive LESS than most city people.

When I was in Atlanta, it could have taken me up to AN HOUR to drive 3 effing miles from where I was staying, to where I was training. FSCK THAT! I have a 17 mile commute from my small town to my larger city that I work in that takes me 15 minutes. I've got corn fields all around me, but I still live 3 miles from one of the nicest malls in the state.

Also, with the increased introduction of Wireless internet, you can get blazing fast 'net connections for dirt cheap (like 444k up and down for $50 USD a month).

 

[ScottyB]

Living in the counrty is great. You can sit around with your doors unlocked and feel totally safe.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
country blows.. no conveniences.. nothing but hassles
having no hustle and bustle around me isn't worth having to drive distance for EVERYTHING and not being able to have high speed net access.. (true story)

Living in L.A. (N. Redondo Beach):
- Distance to Supermarket: ~ 2 miles
- Distance to convenience store: ~ 5 blocks ... but frankly, I wouldn't generally walk there after dark
- Distance to Walmart/Home Depot/Target/Mall, etc.: ~ 4 miles
- Distance to obnoxious neighbors: < 6 inches (townhomes), if you can afford a house, maybe 8 feet grass & concrete

Car vandalized twice in 4 years.
Almost any given day I could read in the paper about violent crimes or drug busts within a 5 mile radius of my home.

Living outside of Colorado Springs on 2.5 acres:
- Distance to supermarket: ~ 5 miles
- Distance to convenience store: ~ 1 mile
- Distance to Walmart/Home Depot/Target/Mall, etc.: ~ 10 miles (or on the way home from work)
- Distance to neighbors: > 50 feet of trees

Getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby, and finding a deer looking in your living room window ... priceless.

And no crime to speak of in our area in the 5 years I've been here. And neighbors that come over to check out your spud-gun instead of calling the cops

Anyway, I'd bet my driving time to get to those places is about the same ... much less traffic. I can't imagine buying a house on the basis on network access

, but I'm < 1/2 mile to the telephone substation if they ever decide to roll out DSL

 

[mee987]

research a few of the places you are considering. its not impossible to live in the country and still get cable internet if thats a big priority.

 

[pyonir]

I didn't read the thread, but here are my two cents.

I grew up in the middle of no where. When i was a kid there were no houses around and I had maybe 1 kid to play with that was within biking/walking distance. It sucked. I didn't have many friends because all the kids in school lived near eachother and could hang out all the time. I had no way to get there. My school was average at best. I lived there for my full 18 years before i went to college, then every summer after that. I hated living there and never want to live in a country setting again.