Where do families live best?
city, country, children
© suhytska / Adobe Stock
Where do children live better? In the city or in the countryside? Both can make you happy, Nora thinks.
article content
With such small children in such a big city? Horror was written all over the faces of the other mothers in the baby group when I told them that we were planning to move to London with our toddler and preschooler for a few years. There seemed to be an unwritten law for young parents: if you move, then to the countryside.
In fact, many do: they move to the countryside, where children have more space to play and where tractors are not only seen in picture books. We have taken the opposite step: in one of the largest metropolises in Europewhere we could only afford a tiny two-room apartment without a garden or balcony due to completely insane rents.
We spent a corresponding amount of time outside: on playgrounds, in museums, in parks. Our boys learned to ride the subway and cross four lanes safely, got used to the roar of football fans outside the window and the rumble of airplanes approaching every three minutes. Because at that time we lived in the approach path of a huge airport. Above all, however, they have become accustomed to the endless offers for children and families that such a large city has to offer: Children’s concert here, family tour there, picture book festival, dance workshop, parent-child picnic. There was always something to do, there was always something to do and it was never boring.
Big cities are becoming more and more family-friendly
Those who have small children and live in a big city often hardly dare to talk about these advantages. The story of Bullerbü’s happy childhood in the country is so powerful. That city parents often feel that they almost automatically have to apologize for the place of residence, which they have chosen for selfish reasons anyway, while their poor city child would certainly be happier in a large field full of hay bales. OR?
I think it’s about time we put an end to this cliché. Childhood in the city can be wonderful. Because although the planners in this country are perhaps not as advanced as in Copenhagen or AmsterdamHowever, our cities have become increasingly family-friendly in recent years. Family centers and multigenerational homes characterize the urban landscape as do modern playgrounds, swimming pools and parks. And museums and other cultural institutions have long recognized that we, parents with small children, are an absolutely attractive target group: curious, enthusiastic and very happy in new adventures. No wonder more and more exhibits have updated museum education and offer scavenger hunts and discovery tours that are already fun for daycare kids. What about even younger children? In the big city with mum or dad you can attend a thousand offers from sign language courses to baby yogawhile their rural peers are in luck if the local church offers a playgroup once a week.
So put an end to the bad conscience when we take our children through life in big or very big cities – especially when we parents are real big city plants ourselves, growing up in a place where we feel comfortable is guaranteed to be better for children, rather than living in a country idyll that makes us adults miserable. It’s different, of course, when we’re more of a country lout at heart. Then such a house in the country can mean great luck – at least until one’s children hit puberty and have to be constantly accompanied everywhere because the bus only runs four times a day. And sometimes you have no choice. Then a new job or new love comes along and brings with it a new home, in a totally different place and just like that. Then it can happen, for example, that busy city parents suddenly end up in a village of 2,000 people, as happened to us when my husband suddenly changed jobs two years ago.
Country life as in a picture book
Since then we have been living like in Ali Mitgutsch’s hidden object book: with horses and cows right next door and all kinds of agricultural machinery in front of the window. We exchanged the noise of planes for the cackling of chickens, the rich cultural life for carnival parades and village festivals. It’s a very different life. And also very beautiful. Sure, it takes a while to find a connection in the country. People drive more cars and have fewer choices when it comes to daycare, schools and pizza delivery services. In return, our young children can actually move much more freely than their big brothers could do in the big city, and they have long befriended different people and animals along their daily routes.
Back in the big city, every ride on the escalator is an adventure, just like a visit to the farm was for our grown children. Which proves that kids can have a great home anywhere – and the best destinations are always the places where everything is completely different from home.
Nora Imlau writes as a freelance author for ELTERN, has a successful blog (nora-imlau.de) and very successful with bestsellers such as “So much joy, so much anger”, Kösel, 20 euros, or “My family compass”, Ullstein, 22.99 euros.
