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We can't seem to think of anyone to pose these questions to so hence, turning to the board for advice. We would love advice from parents who have already raised their kids, ie. they are in college or older, who have lived in various metro places in the U.S. or globally. In short, the question is this....what would you do differently having now the hindsight of age and experience on your side, if you were us?
We have professional jobs and can live anywhere for the most part in the U.S. We now live in Atlanta in a very warm, friendly climate and moved here because of the warmth and diversity, including all that a big metro has to offer. BUT, with that comes some shocking discovery. Schools are horrible, public especially, but private isn't that impressive and you pay college-like tuition for it.
We left Minneapolis after having lived there for almost 20 years but the downside there was that unless you are a native, it is hard to develop any meaningful friendships and we didn't want that experience for our kids. However, we had a wonderful experience with the private Montessori that our older son was attending and that has set the bar for us. We find ourselves with this question: What is really importantly long term? If we stay in Atlanta, we have developed some good friends, enjoy the warmth and diversity of food and culture but long for safety, good public service and good schools. If we move back to Minneapolis, it would simply be for good schools, safety and the fact that we still own a beautiful home there. In the long run, financially, we are better off moving back to Minneapolis for a number of personal reasons. However, we do love what Alanta has to offer but are willing to give up these other intangibles for schools, safety (financial and personal), and the simplicity of the dull life there. Don't get me wrong, we lived there for 20-years so it can't be all that bad!
So our question is, if you have raised your kids and impart some advice to us, what would you do? Thanks in advance.
Is the 20 years a typo? If it isn't the answer is easy:
No way (underline this 10 times) would I raise my children in a place I lived in for 20 years and was unable to make meaningful friends.
Minneapolis? Unfriendly? We are surrounded by Minny transplants and they are so sunny and positive and friendly I sometimes want to hide when I see them coming. Oh, yaah.
Is the 20 years a typo? If it isn't the answer is easy:
No way (underline this 10 times) would I raise my children in a place I lived in for 20 years and was unable to make meaningful friends.
Minneapolis? Unfriendly? We are surrounded by Minny transplants and they are so sunny and positive and friendly I sometimes want to hide when I see them coming. Oh, yaah.
No, sorry, I don't mean to say unfriendly...that's far from the truth. Very wonderful people. Nice, trustworthy. The issue we faced was that it was hard to break into the cliques of family and friends of natives that people have known their entire life. There's not a lot of transplants there so hence people are less likely to reach out to want to meet other people vs. Atlanta where everyone seems to be a transplant is are looking for friendships, etc.
i think you know the answer. it comes through in your phrasing.
Good luck
No, honestly I don't. It seems like the right thing to do is move back to Minneapolis to raise our kids while we give up warmth, friendliness and diversity for safe and cold. Brrr...cold as I write this.
We've lived in NJ, FL and now just north of Atlanta. My younger kids were here for their high school years, and we were very pleased with the public school they attended. In NJ and FL we opted for private high school for our eldest, and the younger two had more opportunities for AP and dual enrollment than the private schools provided.
Schools in GA run the gamut, as you seem to have discovered. Personally, I'd stay and move to a better district. Just the thought of a Minneapolis winter chills me to the bone.
We raised our first family in Fayette County- just south of Atlanta. Our daughter was adopted from Korea and for many years she was the only Asian in her school and certainly the only adopted Asian. She had many friends and they are close to this day -she is 28 but when we started our 2nd family with 2 adopted girls from Vietnasm we headed to Chapel Hill, N.C. where we knew the schools were excellent, and diversity is a given. The university atmosphere here gives us the political and cultural experiences we value. And nobody looks at our mixed race family at all like they did in Atlanta.
We have no extended family anywhere in the country so our choice on where to move was literally anywhere in the world. We do not like cold, treacherous driving conditions and a short gardening season so I think we make a very good choice. Anywhere you go it can be difficult to make new friends especially if your social life does not revolve around church like it does in the South. So we are stretching ourselves to find other ways we fit in.
OP, I have read your threads in the Atlanta forum. Midtown does not have highly rated schools as has been pointed out. North Fulton or NE Cobb have very highly rated schools.
Rather than leave Atlanta, can you just move to a better district? I think that's what Zimbo is alluding to above. Maybe that's the solution.
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