NYC with babies. (New York, York: neighborhoods, school districts, income) - New York City - City-Data Forum

msd · 02-09-2007, 07:45 PM

My wife and I are thinking of moving to NYC (Manhattan). I always hear that it is not a great place to raise kids? Why is that? Expense? People?

Viralmd · 02-10-2007, 06:20 AM

It's fine until the kids go to school (provided housing cost isn't an issue for you). Then it hits: unless you live in one of the few good Manhattan school districts, private school is the way to go. And that's $$$$$$$.

sugarbeet · 02-12-2007, 06:41 AM

It's strictly an issue of the public schools/cost of private schools. I do not have children yet, but there could be nowhere more amazing to grow up than NYC.

Yvie · 02-12-2007, 07:54 AM

My Advice - Dont raise your kids here.....My 8 year old was assulted in school last week by another student and ended up in the emergency room - I resacherd my schools & I live in a good area. Needless to say I am getting out before something worse happens. Best of luck,

Viralmd · 02-12-2007, 03:16 PM

The experience above is atypical. My family are all in NYC, all the kids raised in Manhattan and this is a very unusual occurrence.

ontheroad · 02-12-2007, 03:31 PM

I raised my children in NYC (from age 4-18) and they did well. They didn't go to private school but one of the competitive schools in the City (we were fortunate, I suppose) because I'd reckon about 4 or 5 schools in the public school system are over-average.

The up-side is the experience of living in a city like New York is an education in itself.

We had a thread not long ago with recommended good schools and their neighbourhoods. Do a check "search this forum" and you'll find it.

Good luck!

Manhattan-ite · 02-13-2007, 12:29 AM

I must agree with Viralmd: it's the price of private school that makes having children a problem here in Manhattan.

Some family members were living here in the city and had outrageously high salaries and paid no taxes because they were foreign diplomats. And yet when they faced private-school tuition for their three children, they decided it was time to go back to Europe.

Some many people think, on the other side, that growing up in Manhattan is not the best for a kid: noise, pollution, bad traffic, dangerous intersections, stress, competition, the distractions of a big city and a certain looseness of norms and rules. That's why so many parents choose to have children in a quieter place and then move the kids back to the city at age 18-20 or something.

I don't have kids and I don't want them, but I've got to say that those teenagers I see in the city look either ghetto-poor or ghetto-rich-and-prematurely-aged. Just an impression.

cyntmac · 02-13-2007, 09:23 AM

But if you have babies-they will not yet be in school so it is not an issue yet. We all know it is expensive to raise kids in NYC. Manhattan is out of the question for most families below 125the street of course. There are other parts of the city you could live. Young children will not have any freedom in this day and age though. That is what makes it hard. Many people with young kids attempt to move out of the city. I am assuming you are not super rich. In a case like that I have heard of people moving back when the kids were 12-14 years of age. By then you can let them out on their own. Otherwise there are few neighborhoods where they can go out on their own earlier than that. Outer Brooklyn, Queens-but talk to people who grew up in those places and they are moving out when they have kids in most of the instances I know of. Life with young kids in NYC anywhere is not easy.

The magnet high schools in New York are good but some kids are not a good fit for them and the neighborhood school is usually lacking to horrible. The city is generally not a destination for people with young kids who are not already from there. You need to speak to someone in your income range who lives there and is already doing this to get the real deal. There are many more issues than what would be posted here.