I'm spending some spring break time this week with my kids this week, so Kayris Wall of The Great Walls of Baltimore, a frequent commenter here, graciously helped me out with this thought-provoking guest post on living in the city with her family.
For more on the subject, check out this story I wrote on downtown families several years ago.
Here's Kayris:
Nearly ten years ago, my husband bought a house in the city. Two years later, when we got married, I moved in, and we've been here ever since. When we announced we were having a baby, it didn't take long for people to ask, "When are you moving?"
Many of our former neighbors bolted for the burbs when kids started to come along. We stayed.
Baby number one was easy. Our spare room became the nursery. City living provided ample opportunity for afternoon walks along the water, and we made sure to buy a stroller with plenty of basket room for groceries. With the bank, pediatrician, library and numerous restaurants within walking distance, it was easy to get my stuff done without having to get in the car.
A couple of years later, another baby came along and people asked, "Are you going to move now?" ....And still, we stayed. It was a bit of a squash, but the nursery became the kids room. Living in a rowhome means we don't have things that other people take for granted. Like closets. It means I'm constantly purging stuff, rearranging toys, trying to come up with creative storage solutions for our ever changing needs. It means bedtime is quite often a disaster because two kids and one room don't mix. We're lucky enough to have two bathrooms, but I often wonder what families with only one do with more than one kid in the house.
Raising kids in the city certainly is different than raising kids in the burbs, but I don't feel like mine are missing out on anything. We know all our neighbors, something people in subdivisions can't always say. My kids can't take off with their friends for hours at a time like I did as a child, but the city's parks and museums always provide us with something to do. Our lack of space has really helped us keep our possessions to a minimum and seriously consider if we need something before we buy it. And I'm fond of saying that raising kids in the city makes for good sleepers. Both kids sleep through an appalling amount of noise, be it a loud party next door, early morning engines, or the occasional fire engine screaming down the street.
Still, sometimes we talk about moving out of the city. Wouldn't it be nice for the kids to have their own bedrooms? How great would it be to be able to park in our driveway instead of three blocks away? We could grow all our own produce and leave the lid off the trashcans without worrying about cat-sized rats getting into it. Our children could run barefoot without the fear of broken glass, and I'd no longer have to hear my neighbor sneeze in the middle of the night when the windows are open.
First, the housing bubble popped. Then our oldest child started preschool and we didn't want to move in the middle of the school year. He starts kindergarten this fall and the younger child is in preschool. At this point, there are few easy ways to do it. I used to be anxious to move. Now I don't really want to, because the city girl in me is willing to put up with crappy parking to stay in a community that has made being a family so enjoyable.
City residents--What are your challenges to family life, and do you ever plan to move?