I grew up in an urban area, but was always rather keen on nature/animals though. I don't really know why as my parents are not especially versed in this, althou

I grew up in an urban area, but was always rather keen on nature/animals though. I don't really know why as my parents are not especially versed in this, although they are huge sailing fans so I spent most of my vacations between sea and wind, probably better than being in various hostels... But then again I've had friends go hiking a lot with their families and still have a very light connection with nature. In my opinion determining factors were that my parents were very lax so I could do as I pleased, that I was a single child and had to entertain myself a lot (I don't know if it has much to do with personality, but I think having no siblings to distract me from observing surroundings helped), paid for riding lessons which turned out to be my huge passion and which was social enough to bring and keep me outside much of my adolescence. A lot of friends were in scouting groups and that probably helps too. As for my opinion on having children up in a big vs small city, I think it's too bad to pass up on all the opportunities you can have in a big urban area for a slim and uncertain gain as you have no guarantee your child will enjoy nature on his own and not prefer being on the internet. The cultural offer, education quality, elitist programs are in cities, also the friends he might have will be much more interesting (and their parents too), the network you can have from childhood friendships is unbelievable when you grew up in the right environment, and I can say without a doubt that had I not been in a special school, in the middle of kids smarter than me, with similar to better sociocultural backgrounds, I would not have pushed myself that hard.