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Insurance for girls in Colorado is not *that* high. My kids having cars saved us so much time, it was well worth it.
I'm sure premiums also vary a lot from state to state. I never asked my mom to take me anywhere, didn't do any sports (*shudder*), and generally just sat around the house reading science fiction novels and playing computer games as a kid, so it's not as if it would have saved my mom any time if she had let me drive early.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
Good post.
I don't think I can put it any better than you just did. For some people, I think city life is what they wanted as kids and they assume their kids will want the same thing. So in that sense, they are being somewhat self-centered, even if they are well-meaning in their intentions.
Yeah, but my main point is people should admit they are being selfish about where they want to live, and that's okay.
We can't predict what our kids will like. To a large extent, it will base around how they get along with us, and how they get along with their peers at school. The former will follow you wherever you go, the latter is pretty random (although getting kids into a diverse school with different options may help them find the right niche easier). And one kid might love it while the other might hate it!
Even if we could predict where are kids would like, why should we pick someplace we dislike because they like it? We don't allow our children to pick out the make and model of cars we pick out. We don't allow them to dictate to us our jobs. I don't think children are entitled to be catered to in such an extreme degree.
It's another thing, of course, if there are dire issues with a particular place. My parents moved when I was in first grade largely because the school district was handling me (I was pretty hyperactive back then) pretty poorly). And I know many people whose parents moved in order for them to escape bullies who were literally making their life miserable. But if my daughter ever complained that we don't live in a house with a front yard, I'd just tell her she can buy one with a yard if she wants when she grows up and pays for it with her own money.
As someone who was raised in a rural area and now live in an urban area, I may be able to explain some of this.
Kids from rural areas are probably more interested in these field trips because they have been exposed to so little compared to urban kids. It's more exciting, it's a big deal for them. The urban kids may have shorter attention spans because they are getting bored, having seen so much more in their daily lives. It could also be socioeconomic differences.
I love rural areas, love many urban areas too, not so fond of suburban. Growing up in a rural area, I sort of enjoyed the sheltered innocence in that when something exciting happened, like a simple field trip, it felt like a grand adventure.
OKC is extremely suburban in form and size has nothing to do with whether something is suburban or rural.
Are you trying to argue Aurora isn't a suburb? A bit bizarre.
Have you ever been to Aurora? Doesn't sound like it. Now, Aurora is large, both in population (332,000) and area (154 sq. mi. bigger than Denver). Parts of Aurora have the "built form" that you guys like to call "suburban". Parts of it have the built form that most people call "ghetto". The shootings occurred near the latter.
Parts of Aurora have the "built form" that you guys like to call "suburban". Parts of it have the built form that most people call "ghetto". The shootings occurred near the latter.
These conversations always get muddled but the fact seems to me to be that suburban is by definition part of an urban area. Still, there come assertions that one environment categorically lacks what the other has, which is categorically untrue. Worse, we come to statements about the intrinsic character (much less lifestyle) of one versus the other.
Then again I myself grew up in a dense suburb so I really, really, really don't understand some of the oft repeated statements made on CD about suburban kids. They "can't" do what again? Easily visit their friends without driving? Go out and do things? Eh, maybe it's a generational thing. I do, however, have teenage nephews and their lives work out fine without a car. And they are VERY fit and VERY engaged with all kinds of people and activities near home and in the city. (This is also a dense suburb, however.)
I know we're just offering personal experience from our own environments here. But you all have to know that some of us former suburban kids honestly have absolutely no idea what some of you are talking about.
These conversations always get muddled but the fact seems to me to be that suburban is by definition part of an urban area. Still, there come assertions that one environment categorically lacks what the other has, which is categorically untrue. Worse, we come to statements about the intrinsic character (much less lifestyle) of one versus the other.
Then again I myself grew up in a dense suburb so I really, really, really don't understand some of the oft repeated statements made on CD about suburban kids. They "can't" do what again? Easily visit their friends without driving? Go out and do things? Eh, maybe it's a generational thing. I do, however, have teenage nephews and their lives work out fine without a car. And they are VERY fit and VERY engaged with all kinds of people and activities near home and in the city. (This is also a dense suburb, however.)
I know we're just offering personal experience from our own environments here. But you all have to know that some of us former suburban kids honestly have absolutely no idea what some of you are talking about.
When I was a kid we used bikes to get around, we adventured all over our neighborhood on bike.
I was just in the city (dense suburban form) I grew up in over the weekend and noticed the bicycle infrastructure throughout the city is much better than both Los Angeles and Boston. Maybe it is a California thing, but most of the exurban cities I have visited also had bike lanes on nearly every major artery.
Also, I used (the poor) public transportation to get around the city when I was in High School but didn't have a car.
When I was a kid we used bikes to get around, we adventured all over our neighborhood on bike.
I was just in the city (dense suburban form) I grew up in over the weekend and noticed the bicycle infrastructure throughout the city is much better than both Los Angeles and Boston. Maybe it is a California thing, but most of the exurban cities I have visited also had bike lanes on nearly every major artery.
I don't think it's a Californian thing, but a general west coast (maybe western) thing. The arteries I saw in the Pacific Northwest are more consistenly bike friendly than the northeast, though often here there are narrower low-traffic secondary roads that can be used as alternates.
Year-around weather in California is more friendlier to bicycling. I suspect if the automobile had been invented later, Los Angeles would partly be built around the bicycle…
Looks like LA exurbs also have nice mountain nearby, providing good biking roads; the transition from suburbia to country is more abrupt, unlike the miles of semi-rural spraw that northeastern cities get.
Also, I used (the poor) public transportation to get around the city when I was in High School but didn't have a car.
Was it common for high schoolers to use the local public transportation there? I don't know of anyone who did in my town, excluding the railroad of course.
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