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I think what the OP is trying to convey here is that he wishes he had the "small" things in life. The simple happy childhood type things.
I don't know any person who would enjoy what the OP was saying.
I sure wouldn't want to go to a gang infested high school, I would have wanted and did have the county fair type life.
And I think it's ridiculous to attack him so much.
"Rich posh suburb"???
I grew up in the burbs but it was a normal suburb, not rich and posh, just average and nice. My mom always had the peace of mind that when I went to ****** Days(edited to not show the name of my town) when it came into town for the weekend that if I was there till it closed or later that I was safe, which was 11pm or midnight.
I think he's just saying, don't let your kids miss out on being a kid, you can find cheap suburbs.
Everyone my mom's age and older talks about how this is the way there were raised, biking to the county fair, being independent at a young age, everyone knowing everyone, I don't see why you guys **** on the idea when someone young mentions it.
It's interesting that you still believe that you were deprived in some way. You were exposed to more realities, the crime, the pollution and so on. That is the "norm" for most Americans. The comfortable, insulated middle-class suburban lifestyle you are idealizing has its advantages, for some people. But the teen experience for a lot of kids from the suburbs is not as rosy as you (or your friends) make it out to be. There's a lot of messed up stuff going on in the suburbs too. The lawns are just larger.
We all have a natural tendency to lean towards certain lifestyles, the OP NEVER experienced it, yet still prefers to of had those kinds of things.
Just like me, I used to live in a VERY small town, I mean really small. It was tiny. I STILL, and I don't know why it gets worse as I get older but I still have this longing for all that. Just the small town feel, huge farm houses, warm muggy summer nights and lightning bugs.
I don't know if I could ever move back to that but I still wish I had had it a little bit longer than I did.
I appreciate your insight from someone just learning how other people live.
It makes me feel like I've at least done something right.
I do agree with others who have stated that there are those who would be jealous of your upbringing. Suburban towns are nice for the reasons you describe but they have their issues too.
I think what the OP is trying to convey here is that he wishes he had the "small" things in life. The simple happy childhood type things.
I don't know any person who would enjoy what the OP was saying.
I sure wouldn't want to go to a gang infested high school, I would have wanted and did have the county fair type life.
And I think it's ridiculous to attack him so much.
"Rich posh suburb"???
I grew up in the burbs but it was a normal suburb, not rich and posh, just average and nice. My mom always had the peace of mind that when I went to ****** Days(edited to not show the name of my town) when it came into town for the weekend that if I was there till it closed or later that I was safe, which was 11pm or midnight.
I think he's just saying, don't let your kids miss out on being a kid, you can find cheap suburbs.
Everyone my mom's age and older talks about how this is the way there were raised, biking to the county fair, being independent at a young age, everyone knowing everyone, I don't see why you guys **** on the idea when someone young mentions it.
I had the benefit of growing up in both the true suburbs the OP describes as ideal as well as the more urban upbringing due to my parents divorce. So maybe I have a unique perspective.
There are pros and cons to both and I made sure my daughter has been exposed to both environments. Generally, speaking the suburb I grew up in was safe, and had natural wonders I couldn't really get in the city. It also was far less diverse, much less accepting, and had far less to do and learn. Meanwhile the city had something different to do everyday. And I will add that my school in the city had more options of AP classes than the small suburban school I went to for two years.
I think it is beyond sad that the OP thinks his childhood had no value compared to that of his suburb living classmates.
I think I was pretty fortunate, in that I never became a "townie" even though I currently live in the town next to the one I grew up in. However, I also grew up in New England, where "the city" (New York) is only an hour away, and "the other city" (Boston) is only 2.5 hours away. I lived in the suburbs, but never really felt the "shock" of culture shock when I went to college in Boston, because I was exposed to the city often from childhood on.
Living in Boston was a whole different experience though; I didn't know how to deal with laundromats, I had no idea how people got their clothes TO the laundramat, and then got them, folded and clean, through 2 feet of snow, back to their apartment. I couldn't even imagine such an odd thing. It was surreal. I couldn't imagine living in an area without a Super Food Mart with a huge parking lot where people parked for free, had grocery carts all over the place, and drove there to pick up a week's worth of groceries. I couldn't imagine how in the world I was going to survive, only being able to bring home whatever I could carry in a single paper bag, after walking with it 10 blocks away from home.
It wasn't because I was spoiled, it was because I was never exposed to such remarkably simple concepts such as walking home from the supermarket and carrying your laundry basket in the snow. Public transportation? Are you kidding me? Where I live, you have to walk 6 blocks to the nearest bus stop, and that bus only runs from 8 AM til 7PM, and it takes over an hour for it to get to the other end of the line - which is only halfway to where you want to be - then you have to take a transfer and wait 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive. We didn't know diddly about public transportation here in the burbs. We drove, we got rides from friends who drove, or we didn't go anywhere beyond our own neighborhood. Period.
So I missed out on a lot of things being a suburbanite. Oddly, I never felt as though I missed anything at all. And I adapted just fine once I got over the initial "wtf" that was city living.
I was never exposed to other cultures. I was 12 before I met someone who wasn't a white middle-class suburbanite.
I very rarely got to go to museums, zoos, theaters, etc. I got to go to ONE of those things every few years. It was so rare that I can remember those experiences vividly.
We had no public transportation. The nearest bus was miles away, only ran for a few hours each day and if you didn't catch the first bus of the day, you wouldn't get to any destination farther than 5 miles away before having to turn back to get back to your stop before the buses stopped running for the day.
Many of my friends lived too far away to ride my bike, so I had to depend on my mom to drive me to see them.
I was never exposed to other cultures. I was 12 before I met someone who wasn't a white middle-class suburbanite.
I very rarely got to go to museums, zoos, theaters, etc. I got to go to ONE of those things every few years. It was so rare that I can remember those experiences vividly.
We had no public transportation. The nearest bus was miles away, only ran for a few hours each day and if you didn't catch the first bus of the day, you wouldn't get to any destination farther than 5 miles away before having to turn back to get back to your stop before the buses stopped running for the day.
Many of my friends lived too far away to ride my bike, so I had to depend on my mom to drive me to see them.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
I grew up small town, in apartments but in suburby towns.
I was ALWAYS going to museums, the zoo, operyland, chattanooga, all the big attractions in Nashville, I was ALWAYS traveling. I have been to nearly 30 states, canada, I can navigate an air port blind folded.
I experienced MORE living in a smaller town than I do now.
There are advantages and disadvantages of living anyplace - urban, suburban, rural, whatever. It's pointless to wonder how you might be different, or your life might be different, if you had been raised elsewhere.
I totally missed out being raised somewhere other than Paris, or Venice, Rome, Mykonos..I missed SO hard not being raised in the African jungles where they have like - wild animals and stuff. I mean wtf all I get is raccoons and the rare lost bear that comes down the mountain? Okay so we had a red-tailed hawk land in the squirrel nest two days ago. Big woop. It wasn't a PARROT, ya know? I missed out on that hard.
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