LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!

City vs. Suburbs.  I grew up in the suburbs (Rydal, PA). I couldn’t wait to move to the city and did it and worked hard to get there. I moved to the greatest city of all, NYC.  I was 24 and in my glory and lived there for 7 years and then went straight to another city, the most beautiful city of all … San Francisco. 11 years and going strong.  Now we have a 2 year old and we are outgrowing our apartment. Kids need space. We need a yard, closets and more space. We need a bedroom when Nonna visits. We just need more. Our dilemma: city vs. suburbs. 

Suburbs: better schools, community, yard, garage, quiet, our son will (hopefully) grow up with the same group of kids, safety, solitude, SPACE. But it’s boring. There’s not much to look at and not much to do. I was bored in the burbs. You are either at home or in the car driving, driving, driving with traffic & strip malls. 

City: colorful people, amazing restaurants (and always new one’s popping up), hipsters, museums, nice parks for kids and adults, movement, loud, buses, trains, action, life. I marvel of how well my son eats. We go to the farmer’s market 2x a week and pick up fresh and organic produce and fruit. My son eats organic and farm fresh food every day. He doesn’t even know how well he has it.  But we worry about the schools (gangs!), and we do not have a big space. Nonna stays in a hotel when she visits. We also have street parking and no yard.  We really want that yard!

We went to the east coast in May. My son kept asking about cars and buses. He missed them. He missed going for walks and seeing all the action in the street. He missed the buses and trains.  He missed city life.

I don’t know if we can “do” the suburbs. I just don’t know.  I am afraid we will be bored and sick of driving everywhere. We will get heavy (that’s what happens there, you gain weight and become lazy since you drive instead of walking everywhere).  But I keep thinking about the schools, yard and garage.  It would be nice to have that house. It would be nice to just sit and relax instead of always on the go, go, go!  It would be nice knowing my son is going to a good school and he will grow up the same kids. But raising a city kid is very cool. He would be sophisticated and be a little different from those cookie-cutter suburb kids. He will have much more life experience.  

I just don’t know. I wish we could have it all, but we can’t.  But I do know that suburbs is probably not for us. We need to find an in between place that has both worlds.  If you know it, do tell.