Any reasons why you believe bringing children up in the countryside is better than in a town/city?

Thank you to anyone who has any comments.

Rob Giddings BA Geography student @ University of Plymouth

-- rob giddings (rob_plymouth@hotmail.com), March 13, 2002

Answers

Look in the archives I seem to remember this being asked not to long ago .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), March 13, 2002.

Hmmmmm...seems too obvious to even ask that question! But, I guess it depends on who you are, the personalities involved, etc.

My daughter has only lived on homesteads, except for two semesters when she was two....and we lived in a dorm room at college ;-)

She has been an unschooler, slave labor for our farm and an all- around good kid ;-) She started building her house here at the farm at 17.....saved all the money, did most of the work. http://www.homestead.com/peaceandcarrots/HeathersHouse.html

-- Peace and Carrots Farm (wsm311@aol.com), March 13, 2002.

children brought up in the country are healthier-more fresh air, real exercise, more likely to be independent, understand the "facts of life" including reproduction, birth, death, and everything in between, my kids attend public school (3 of the 4-# 4 isn't school age) and they have a much better attitude than the kids i see raised in town, and a better, more positive outlook on life. they know what real life is and don't have a warped view about how things work. they are way happier now than when we lived in apartments and on the army base. and i feel they are safer-they know the woods have dangers, so they watch out. i see town kids that have no concept of danger.

-- laura (okgoatgal@hotmail.com), March 13, 2002.

It is not always the cut-and-dried thing that people make it out to be- -advantages and disadvantages are kind of a personal preference thing. There are nice country areas and awful country areas, just as there are nice cities and awful cities.

Some see only the "inner city" as representative of all cities in general, just as some see "hicksville" as representative of all country life. That is wrong.

I feel that it is up to you to make a good life for yourself wherever you are.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 13, 2002.

Here is the link for the other thread, Why is Country life better for children? If I remember rightly, it was a long one.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 13, 2002.

It has its advantages and disadvantages. I grew up in the country. My mom and dad gave me a fishing pole and a b.b.gun and turned me loose to the woods and creeks which would be my babysitter the whole time I was growing up. They never had to worry about me cause there wasn't a whole lot of trouble a growing boy in woods could get hisself into. Yet on the other hand when I grew up and had to move to town to do this God awful funny thing called Work for a living, I found out that my city skills was very raw. I didn't know how to get around in the streets, didn't know how to read street signs, didn't even know what a caldesac was.

Eventually moved back to the country where home is and always will be.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 13, 2002.

In the country you teach them to shoot, and buy them a rifle when they reach the ripe old age of 12. In the city, you try to tell them that guns are bad, and by the age of 12, they have a "friend" that will give them an automatic weapon in trade for some crack or the monetary equvalent thereof. The former kids will defende our country against any intruder. The latter ARE the intruders. In my limited but absolutely correct opinion, the likes of Teddy, Hillary, Barbara, and Chuck are the antithesis of Freedom. I welcome your opinion! And to all my friends, ie. all re4aders hereof - GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), March 13, 2002.

woah, what?

-- chuck (reply@mission4me.com), March 13, 2002.

I grew up in the country. Came to the city for "jobs/success". My son was raised on the sidewalks. I will always regret it. His childhood was so unlike mine!

-- J McFerrin (JMcFerrin@aol.com), March 13, 2002.

There is a "second chance ranch in N C for "hopeless boys" The headmaster said he has had children of every kind of blue, and white collar family.......EXCEPT farmers!

-- Elizabeth Quintana (rockshelter@webtv.com), March 13, 2002.

Country living builds real character into children.A little old fashioned hard work and responsibility is good for them.

In our industrialized society, kids don't seem to have character anymore. A couple hundred years ago, if you did not get up and fetch the wood for the fire you both froze and starved at the same time. If you didn't put you food up for winter, you again starved. If you didn't make it yourself, you didn't have it. The realities of living built character.

Today's youth can get away with being lazy, selfish, and immoral with no consequences to face for their abberant behavior. All of life's conveniences have spoiled them. There is nothing for them to do in the cities but indulge in the neverending sources of entertainment - filling their endless hours living in a concrete jungle. Today's youth are complaining about bad hair days and not having enough allowance to buy the latest CD by 30 year old men who sing songs about incest.

Yesterday's youth faced smallpox epidemics, starvation, poverty, and the inconvenience of having to walk out to the outhouse when it is 10 below zero.

When I go into the cities, I see a bunch of forlorn looking creatures tripping over thier bell bottoms and wandering aimlessly through life with nothing to do. When I compare that with my smiling little girl holding up the squash that she planted, fertilized, weeded, and cured in the hot sun for storage in the cellar I am so thankful that I live in the country. Life just has so much more purpose and meaning out here for me. I am surrounded by beauty and living things.

I would rather spend a day cleaning out a stall then wandering the mall! I hope to pass these values on to my children. They can really experience life out here - instead of wasting their lives watching other people's pretend lives on television. If you really want to develop an appreciation for the simple life read Henry and the Great Society from Roush. Changed my life!

-- Tiffani Cappello (cappello@alltel.net), March 13, 2002.

Our daughter,22 yrs old, was raised entirely in the country until she left for college. We feel that the livestock and garden helped keep her closer to nature, to appreciate and respect her world more. But if she had been raised in town, I believe that we could still have installed morals and virtues into her life. IMHO, parental involvement is more important than location.

-- Scotsirish (notreal@anywhere.net), March 14, 2002.

sometimes location makes it easier, though. like i said (i think) my kids are so much happier (overall) than the kids i see who live in town. and stronger-my 9 year old, 7 year old and 4 year old (36 lbs) can all carry the 21 month old (35 lbs) while their city-raised, tv watching 10 year old cousin can barely pick him up. they can out run, out climb, and out play her, too. she prefers tv to playing. i call that SAD!

-- laura (okgoatgal@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002.

being realistic, there's plenty of kids out in the country that spend their free time in front of a tv and munching on junk food. There's plenty of trouble a kid can find out in the country. Drugs aren't hard to find in rural areas. Most of the meth in the US is made in rural areas. I've lived from one extreme to the other, from living 30 miles to the closest paved road to living and working in the ghetto. It's more a matter of *how* you live, not where you live.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002.

To me the ideal place to raise children is in the country. My husband communted from 60 to 120 miles daily for many years so our children would have that chance. (Now he wishes he'd had the courage to open his handyman business then but that's another story....)

Our last homeschooler graduated about three years ago and will turn 21 this month. He was the youngest, at 19, that our area bank had ever approved a home loan for without a co-signer and when he bought his house it was in a rural area, on one acre, with a chain length fence, with guineas and lots of other animals.....He and his wife of nearly a year are living very happily there!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.

When I was a kid we lived in a trailer park kinda in the country. We were about 2 miles south of south milwaukee, 1/4 mile from lake Michigan, 1/4 mile from the city dump, woods, fields and a big pond nearby. I spent ALOT of time outdoors and don't remember being bored.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 20, 2002.