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You live in Virginia and you have hangups about NJ? LOL
I think living in the city with kids the ages you mentioned is easier. You won't have to constantly shuttle them around by car. You mentioned that a longer train ride from CT or Westchester wouldn't be that bad but there are things you might not be considering. If you have a 40 minute subway ride and you walk from your apartment to the train and from the train to your office - that's it. Plus it's the subway, you get there when you get there and the train comes. With suburban trains you're driving to the station (never fun, less fun in the winter) then have a long train ride, then you switch to the subway for another ride to the office. Then reverse it and in the winter you get to brush the snow and ice off your car at the station when you get home and wait in line behind 200 other people who are driving their cars out of the lot. And if it's not rush hour and you miss your train, get comfortable waiting for the next one.
If you really want to live in the city, then you have to live in the city. Westchester isn't going to be just like living in the city. If you can't afford Manhattan look at one of the boroughs near a ferry line.
You're entitled to your opinion, but you sound like a know it all. I mean, how can you possibly know what's best for ALL kids? (Hint: answer - you don't.)
Anyway, you've already proven your ignorance with your tasteless and mean spirited remarks earlier in the thread so I highly doubt OP is going to give even one second's consideration of your comments.
Yes it is my opinion and im entitled to it just like you are entitled to yours. If you want to perceive me as tasteless and meanspirited then so be it as that's your perception.
All I stated was its not such a good idea for kids living in NYC as MOST grow up in a bubble environment. Why transplant the kids to a place that's a huge melting pot and not let the kids experience it growing up by going to a regular school (public/private/charter/etc) so they can build relationships and have a better understanding of NYC. I never said anything about ALL kids so I don't know where you got that I know what's best for all kids since I sound like a know it all and such.
In the end no one can tell the OP what to do with her kids, its her and her husbands choice and they have the ability to listen to the folks that were born here, grew up here, transplanted here, immigrated here, or was displaced from here and then make a decision based on the information they gathered.
Anyway, you’ll be fine if you live in the city if you really want to be here and like city life.
I love city life, love not driving, love picking up and taking my kid to the beach and the farmer’s market and the public pools and libraries and museums and fun neighborhoods all the time. I love that my kid is surrounded by people who don’t look like our family. It’s massively beneficial.
For homeschool especially I think you’re well situated here. There’s Kidpass, which you can use to do extra activities, free activities run by the parks, and the Brooklyn botanical garden does an entire children’s course from 2+ in gardening and farming. Governor’s island has a learning farm on it with goats. The zoos are great. The botanical gardens are great. Central Park and Prospect Park respectively are amazing places to just let the kids run wild and explore nature. You could join in with the free forest school in Prospect Park or Central Park once a week, take a trip up to the Cloisters and Ft Tyron Park to explore nature and walk through the museum filled with religious art (even as atheists, it’s an amazing insight into medieval European art forms because basically everything then was religious art). The Museum of Natural History would be a wonderful science classroom. It even has a section on local nature and animals. The Met is great. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is good for little ones.
If you want to support local parent-run businesses, the forest school in Central Park is relatively affordable and run by two great parents. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time with them and learned a lot about the park.
I could go on and on, but frankly I think cities are great if you’re up for the distinct trials of city life. Even better for you because you have money, which makes a big difference.
We've definitely considered a lot of these. But if the commute is still nearly an hour (which it seems to be from most places--even Park Slope is 40 minutes), it's really hard to swallow paying over $1 million dollars for a small dated home when for just 30 more minutes on the train, we can have a large beautiful one on a couple acres. That's why we kinda feel like we want to choose between going small with a short commute (preferably 30-ish minutes or less) or just sucking up the long commute and getting more for our money. The in-between seems to be the worst of both worlds rather than the best of both.
Should we also be looking in places like Jersey City? My husband's bank is on the west side of Manhattan, so the commute from NJ is shorter. (Why do I have hang-ups about NJ?)
Anyway, you’ll be fine if you live in the city if you really want to be here and like city life.
I love city life, love not driving, love picking up and taking my kid to the beach and the farmer’s market and the public pools and libraries and museums and fun neighborhoods all the time. I love that my kid is surrounded by people who don’t look like our family. It’s massively beneficial.
For homeschool especially I think you’re well situated here. There’s Kidpass, which you can use to do extra activities, free activities run by the parks, and the Brooklyn botanical garden does an entire children’s course from 2+ in gardening and farming. Governor’s island has a learning farm on it with goats. The zoos are great. The botanical gardens are great. Central Park and Prospect Park respectively are amazing places to just let the kids run wild and explore nature. You could join in with the free forest school in Prospect Park or Central Park once a week, take a trip up to the Cloisters and Ft Tyron Park to explore nature and walk through the museum filled with religious art (even as atheists, it’s an amazing insight into medieval European art forms because basically everything then was religious art). The Museum of Natural History would be a wonderful science classroom. It even has a section on local nature and animals. The Met is great. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is good for little ones.
If you want to support local parent-run businesses, the forest school in Central Park is relatively affordable and run by two great parents. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time with them and learned a lot about the park.
I could go on and on, but frankly I think cities are great if you’re up for the distinct trials of city life. Even better for you because you have money, which makes a big difference.
I agree if you like city living you will love NYC if not you will hate it. My kids beg me to homeschool them, I am just too broke to be able to do it, I would in a heartbeat if I had the means, there is so much to do in NYC and they could have hands-on learning.
Yeah, being able to afford is such a big thing with homeschool.
We don’t either because I can’t afford to and am a full-time student, but I consider the rest of our time “partial homeschool”, even when time is limited I like to make sure we get out and do stuff.
With 4 kids be certain to have a rock solid back up plan in case the Big Apple is not the right fit for your family.
Maybe first try for an extended vacation of say 3-4 weeks to see how it goes. If you have any difficulties during a test run like that I would gauge it in a way that those challenges become significantly magnified once you actually make the more permanent relocation. Even with tons of money, being a resident of NYC and actually transplanting your life (and kids!) to the Big Apple is different than just hanging out for a few weeks.
On a more positive note, it could be the opportunity of a lifetime. Best wishes
This post perfectly sums up my feelings: Living in the city sounds really hard with all these kids, and it's probably not the best idea...but it *could* be amazing! Lol. That *could* is what I'm hung up on, but yeah, the reality is that it would likely be very difficult.
You live in Virginia and you have hangups about NJ? LOL
Clearly you don't know much about Northern Virginia. It's the most educated area of the country, and it includes three of the six richest counties in America.
This post perfectly sums up my feelings: Living in the city sounds really hard with all these kids, and it's probably not the best idea...but it *could* be amazing! Lol. That *could* is what I'm hung up on, but yeah, the reality is that it would likely be very difficult.
OP why not come here and rent for a while. You can try out the city see if its suits you if it doesn't you can easily look for a house in the sounding area and move when your lease is up.
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