[momnh]

...per Backpacker Magazine. Lebanon, NH is #10 or #11 (can't remember which!).

[1zodiac]

do people raise indoor kids also?
do indoor kids also get declawed?

schools and the crime rate are the factors for a good rating.
when they're 18 and living on their own it's a different story...

[momnh]

? Not sure what you mean about an indoor kid. People sure do raise them. Those are the kids that sit in front of the TV all day or on the computer because they don't have a safe outside environment. Where I lived in NH, my son couldn't ride his bike more than two houses away because of safety (and that was only in NH!). Here he can ride all over the neighborhood without me worrying. It's much more like how things were when I was a kid growing up in upstate NY and I appreciate that. In addition, the amount of things to do here for kids is staggering. We often have trouble deciding what to do on the weekend. Should we hike, go to the skate park, bike path, the lake, a festival, a farm, etc. Notice none of these involve going to a manufactured indoor environment like a Chuck E Cheese, MyGym, McDonald's Play Area, etc like it is in other places.

[joe moving]

mom, where are you?

tough thing i noticed is while there's plenty of open space, even I am scared to bike ride on some of these busy county or state roads. and i am a bike racer!!!

Hiking, swimming,farms, festivals, etc. is all very nice though.

[momnh]

I am in Williston

[flu189]

Yup, no doubt about it, the forests, fields, streams, hills, valleys, and bucolic town centers provide a safe and healthy environment for kids. It's just a shame that with this bounty too many kids still get hooked on dope or booze and don't appreciate the surroundings that they have. Then again, once they reach the age of majority and need to make a living many are forced to look elsewhere. I guess I was lucky. Despite growing up in a neighborhood in NYC choked with apartment buildings, industry, expressways, and the inherent risks which urban life brings, I was indeed an "outside" kid. Walking everywhere wearing out two to three pairs of Pro Keds or Converse each year, playing stickball, street hockey, etc, and in the summer heading to the beaches as much as possible kept me in shape. Then again, thirty and more years ago we were not addicted to the electronics which now all too much dominate kid's lives, be they urban, suburban, or rural. It is interesting to note the reference to "Backpacker" magazine. I myself have end-to-ended the Vermont Long Trail five times now and the majority of kids and young adults I come into contact with here in Vermont do not even know of this Mass to Canada trail which has been in existence since 1911 and has the distinction of being America's oldest long distance hiking trail.