Cost of living & Kid-friendly neighborhoods (coop, homes, preschool)

[photoman_6]

renting with two cats might be a problem. If you're gonna do it, better make it quick, before the season begins.

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by TwangDjango

A side question and not meaning to thread jack. I have seen this comment posted a few times already and am curious to why kids aren't seen running around outside and playing? No big wheels and bikes on the neighborhood roads, no street soccer or hockey? (non-gated obviously ) Just a sign of the times or is this a kid culture thing of the area?

much appreciated.

Demographics. There are many older people here who are grandparents rather than parents. And those grandchildren live in other states. It is my impression based at looking at charts of demographics, that there are also a disproportionate share of people who are older parents, i.e. 40ish rather than 20ish. I think there are not areas with groups of kids in the streets because the children are too sparsely distributed to form groups.

Also hasn't the world changed? This is an age of children being scheduled into activities, sports, and lessons with parents who chauffeur? For safety reasons and a change in parenting styles, the days of children playing in the streets seem like a Norm Rockwell painting.

[Picshooter]

I think some of it is sign of the times. When my kids were growing up (here) we had a rule that no one was to be out after dark. In the summer they would take off on their bikes early and would sometimes be gone all day. There was another rule that they needed to call and check in during those long days, as well as be home for dinner.
Now that they are older they are starting to share stories they didn't dare tell us back in the day. I can tell that they cherished the good old days.

I feel things have changed, my grandkids were never out of sight. Their activities have changed to group activities / sports, or hanging out at the mall. Kind of sad.

Originally Posted by TwangDjango

A side question and not meaning to thread jack. I have seen this comment posted a few times already and am curious to why kids aren't seen running around outside and playing? No big wheels and bikes on the neighborhood roads, no street soccer or hockey? (non-gated obviously ) Just a sign of the times or is this a kid culture thing of the area?

much appreciated.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Its not just here - in other parts of the country there are not many children playing in the streets - when my sons go outside to play basketball you can be sure I have my eyes on them -

Also - a lot of these kids are allowed to play video games all day - I limit mine but not all parents do

[macrodome2]

We're in a gated community and there are a number of kids in the community, but they all seem to go down the the community center where the basketball courts, baseball field, grass field, playground equipment, skating rink, tennis courts and pool are. There's always someone on the basketball court and the grass field. The teenagers sometimes hang out on the playground equipment if there are no little kids using it. We don't see many hanging outside the front of their houses.

[Yrsa]

Thank you all. This is so helpful. We're moving from Tallahassee, so already used to Florida (at least the Southern Georgia variety of Florida!).

On the kids playing issue - it's so depressing to me. It's true here too, but there are a couple of neighborhoods that have a pretty decent population of SAHMs and more 'crunchy' type parents that do have kids playing outside together. Every study I've seen has found that it's safer today than it was 30 years ago, but so many seem to think it's too dangerous. And all the structure. Sigh. I'm a big believer in safety in numbers and freedom to explore, but if no one's letting their kid ride their bike to the park, it makes it pretty difficult to let your kid. I keep hoping the tide turns. Of course, it does make sense that the demographics of Sarasota would make it even more unlikely.

I've never seen myself as a gated community type person, but maybe that's worth looking into in order to get more of a community feel.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

What are "crunchy" type parents? Never heard that one before.

[Yrsa]

Originally Posted by Fairfax Mom

What are "crunchy" type parents? Never heard that one before.

Ha! It's a pretty loose phrase that tends to refer to lots of different parenting practices, lifestyle choices (especially related to food) that tend toward the more natural. I think the phrase came from crunchy granola. Here's a list:

What is Crunchy Parenting?

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Yrsa

Ha! It's a pretty loose phrase that tends to refer to lots of different parenting practices, lifestyle choices (especially related to food) that tend toward the more natural. I think the phrase came from crunchy granola. Here's a list:

What is Crunchy Parenting?

I've heard the term used quite a bit in my homeschool group that we're involved with and you're right I think it's derived from granola.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Oh - I see - crunchy - like making homemade baby food and all that jazz - I might have been crunchy for 5 minutes. LOL

I am just to paranoid to let me kids run around unsupervised with all the sex offenders in Florida - when I was a kid I did a lot of dangerous things and was lucky nothing ever happened to me.