Relocating with 3 Children... (Raleigh, Durham, Greenville: sales, chapel, home)

[SunshineMom]

Hello... First time on this...
My husband and I are relocating with 3 small children and are looking in the Washington and Greenville areas. Any advice, good, bad or ugly?

[Esperanza27713]

SunshineMom - I have seen your posts and wish I had more relevant information to give you. I grew up in Washington, and my family still lives there, but I have lived away for many years. What I know is limited knowledge.

Basically, if you live in the Washington school district, there is no school choice except to go private. What I mean to say is that there is a school that does K-1, another for 2-3, etc. Living in a large city like Durham has made me wistful for such a simple situation.

I looked at the test scores for Washington not too long ago, just curious to see the current scores of a system that produced me. I thought for small town NC, with limited economic resources and mixed demographics, the schools were doing OK. You'll find test score info at Washington Schools. Of course, you should keep test scores in perspective - there's so much more that makes or breaks a school!

If you like church life, you and your family could find a secure home in Washington. That seems to be an excellent source of social contacts and events. If you have the interest and finances to purchase a boat, or to make the river your focus of family activity, Washington may have a lot to offer.

Greenville definitely has more shopping, more restaurants, and more nightlife (with three children I'm guessing you're past the nightlife point!). I lived there for a year or so several years ago, and while it provided more city-type things, I was irritated by the traffic. My then boyfriend would visit from Durham and it was basically dinner and a movie - not much to do. Yet, my cousin and his wife live there with their two small children and they love it.


You'll find a lot more chatter about Greenville on this board than Washington. Hopefully someone can come along with more recent knowledge about life in the Original Washington (as it likes to call itself).

[SunshineMom]

Thank you so much for your reply. My husband is in surgical device sales so I'm not sure Washington/Greenville is where we will end up. He tends to want to be more in the Chapel Hill area but I'm rooting for the coast because of growing up on the Chesapeake Bay! (But anything is better than NEPA weather!) Are you in the Raleigh area now? Do you find that area to be a better place to raise a family rather than the east coast??

[Esperanza27713]

I've been in Durham for the past ten years. I visit Washington with the nostalgia of returning to one's hometown. The Pamlico River, the Spanish moss, the memory of lazy summer days, will always taint my view of the town. I've traveled to many places in this world, but I still think the intercoastal waterways of NC have some of the most beautiful sunsets to be seen.

All that said, I find the Triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) infinitely more interesting, with Durham being the most interesting to me. I lived in Chapel Hill for seven years, mostly as a student, and I loved it at the time. It's still special to me, but I don't want to live there. It is a great place for some, though. You should check it out in person to see if you feel at home. I get my hair cut in Carrboro, another place you should check out.

I lived in Raleigh for a year and a half and I found it a convenient place in which to live. For my first years in Durham, I still found myself in Raleigh often. Back then, it had better shopping than the rest of the Triangle and there were great summer events like Live After Five (do they still do that?!). Over the past few years, though, the shopping in Durham has improved to the point that I have no reason to go to Raleigh. We rarely go, except to the State Fair and occasionally to the NC Museum of Art.

So, my life is in Durham, with a population of about 275,000, and tons more to do than Little Washington (as the rest of the state calls it)! Life here is extremely comfortable, but with just enough edge to make it interesting.

I could see myself someday living in a small, coastal town again, especially in retirement. My husband, however, cannot. I predict that years from now, I'll probably be sitting in a rocking chair somewhere in the Triangle, still thinking about sunsets and Spanish moss.