32 ms·
I have to be contrarian in spite of aesthetically preferring the classical city. Nothing about the suburbs made sense to me until I had kids. Now everything ma
by api 8y ago
I have to be contrarian in spite of aesthetically preferring the classical city.
Nothing about the suburbs made sense to me until I had kids. Now everything makes sense.
Young kids require a lot of gear. Hauling all that without a car is hard. Walking and transit take time and kids have schedules or else you get meltdowns. Kids also get bored.
Density helps transit time but kids need safe space to play and that is at a premium in dense cities.
Unpacking and packing young kids into cars is painful. You have to get them in, belted, etc., which for <5yos can be an ordeal each time. Enter the drive through.
I could go all day.
Not saying you can't do kids in a city, just that the burbs make total sense now.
- jdavis703 8y agoCounter-example from the 90s: my mom operated a home daycare business. She’d take all us kids (usually 6 or 7) on the bus and we’d take a trip to the pool, or park or whatever. It’s possible to do fun things with your children without a car.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoI live in a downtown area atm specifically for my toddler. We go to the grocery store everyday, we go to the nearby park, he doesn’t mind the transit times. Ever since we changed his seat to face forward, he does love it when we actually use the car, and sometimes demands it (kai che, kai che!), but it isn’t really necessary unless we are going to the doctor or pool. We did choose downtown Bellevue rather than downtown Seattle, however, which has a huge park and not so many of the negatives of Seattle (homeless, drug needles, etc...).