Raising kids in small apartments. (activities, children, school, family)
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Don"t worry too much. yes I understand what you say it is different than your childhood of course mine too. But I don't live in a apartment complex.But I do know lot of kids who grew in apartments not only there, in asylum refugee camps too. But any one of them did not become a bad person because of where they lived. My assistant is from Iran. She lived in country to country shelter to shelter in her child age. What does matters what kids see at home. That is what important that is what what I feel.
I live in an apartment complex that is mostly young families with small children. There really isn't a green space, no playground, and no real dedicated area for the kids to play. It's basically a little "concrete jungle." It's not really walkable to anything else, though there is a municipal bike trail behind the complex.
I see the kids out playing in the parking lot and can't help thinking they're a little deprived compared to how I grew up in a house with a large yard, and other kids in the neighborhood to play with in the yards. The space feels so confined and unnatural for a child. The apartments themselves aren't that big either.
Do you think raising kids in apartments is healthy? How do you compensate for the lack of space?
If I lived in a situation like this I would plant a Garden
You can do it in pots and in odd corners, even on walls and patios and hanging in midair. It gives kids some green and oxygen and knowledge of how things arrive on their table. You can grow a tiny maze they can run through, of beans and tomatoes and other plants that live all year, if you do it right.
I would also take them to the park. My kids grew up with a backyard cubby house swings and slide but we'd still take them to the park, play soccer in the street, go to the city gardens for picnics, take em to the countryside.
A lot of kids grow up without green in places like Hong Kong. Its the way most of the world lives. Urban gardens are the Way of the Future and can be erected just about anywhere.
It's hard to miss somthing you never had. Kids raised in apartments are used to that life style and to them don't see it any worse then living anywhere else.
I work in factories. I started out in production. I then worked my way into skilled non production. I will never go back to production. When I only had production shop experience I didn't realize just how bad that job was untill I working in a skilled trade.
The only kids that might hate living in an apartment are the ones that had to move from a nice house into the apartments. That's my take on it. As long as there are other kids to play with then most kids are happy with that.
This is too funny. I grew up in a great neighborhood, playing outside and riding our minibikes, etc. But I made a good friend whose family had just moved here and they had an apartment WITH A POOL. I was SO jealous! She hung out with older girls and seemed so much more sophisticated than I. I wished my parents would move into an apartment complex!
Aren't there other kids in your neighborhood? IMO it's important to scope out the neighborhood if you're moving with kids, to make sure there will be playmates around. It IS lonely for kids who don't have anyone their age around. Some neighborhoods are full of kids. My parents picked a neighborhood that was a bit isolated, so they had to drive us around on weekends to play with our friends from school or our cousins.
I had a friend who lived in an apartment, and there was no problem, no lack of space issues. What do kids need a lot of space for? Especially these days, when playing together mainly involves video games. When I was a kid, my friend lived near a couple of parks, so there were always places to play outdoors.
Most of the kids in Europe grow up in apartments, btw. Nobody there feels deprived.
^^This is so true. House or apartment matters far less than neighborhood. (That's assuming that each one is safe and in good repair.)
If the neighborhood offers friendship, like other kids, and playspace, it's all good. We raised our kids in an apartment. The park was nearby when they were little and we took them often -- a little more work than just opening the backyard door and telling them to go out and play, but the extra walk and exercise did us good anyways. Plus, there were a lot of other kids close by (the building where they grew up had 400 apartments) so revolving playdates at different families' apartments were common.
They kids played touch football in the streets (a quieter side street) when they were older and basketball on the outdoor courts in the park or at nearby public schools. And we didn't really worry about them because we raised them right, and we lived in a safe, low-crime neighborhood.
If those ingredients are present when you raise kids in an apartment, then the kids will be OK.
This wins the prize for CD most judgmental thread.
Of course you can raise a child in an apartment-TONS of people do.
We used to live in a large home with almost an acre of land. Terrible, just terrible for our kids. Kids couldn't go outside at all-total waste of land. Too many cars speeding out front, and too many venomous creatures and other dangers out back. May as well have been an apartment.
How nice it would've been for them to be in an apartment with lots of kids nearby, community events and hallways to explore...
I went from a suburban home in Ohio to a SoCal apartment when I was nine years old, and I hated it -- but that was because I was the oldest of four (and then five) kids and I had to take my siblings to the park (almost three blocks away) for at least an hour every single day that had nice weather . . . and in SoCal, there were a LOT of those days.
However, I was an indoor type of a girl, and I would have much rather read a book than go to the park, even without the babysitting. I think it all depends on the type of child and other factors, too. However, I don't think my younger siblings minded the move and the lack of a backyard at all.
P.S. In today's world, though, I think my parents would have been investigated for child endangerment! I mean sending a nine-year-old off to watch at least three younger siblings all by herself? Oh, the horror!! Well, just one more way the world has changed in the last 50 years!
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