# Moving city kids to the country



## kristi96 (Mar 31, 2009)

Right now my family lives in subdivision. The houses are so close I can see what my neighboor is watching on their TV. We are moving to a house in the country (more like national forest). Last night DH was lighting off some small fireworks and there was about 15 neighboor hood kids outside watching them. My 4 y/o was riding his bike around with all the kids and having a great time. This kind of things wont happen because there isn't any neighboors by us. I'm hoping its not going to be to hard to take my kids out of the city. They really do enjoy being able to go outside and ride bikes with all the neighboor hood kids.


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## operamommy (Nov 9, 2004)

Well, any move is an adjustment. We moved from a housing addition/suburb area to the country (almost 4 acres on a dead-end gravel road) about 4.5 years ago. At the time my oldest two were 10 and 7. They've always found plenty to do out here, even with not having tons of kids around to play with. We invite friends over often, and don't forget fun things like having a big garden, a hide-out in the woods, bird watching, hiking, etc. Hope you guys love it as much as we do!


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## angie7 (Apr 23, 2007)

I worry about the same thing. We are renovating a house on 9 wooded acres, the house sits back nearly half an acre from the road and it's line with trees on both sides so we see no one. The nearest neighbor is at the end of our drive. My twins are 3 and I don't think will really miss living in the city. I think it will be fun to get out and see nature, take hikes, etc. We also have a 3 acre lake that we look forward to fishing in as well. Any move will be an adjustment but I think it will be a good move for all of you!


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## LoBleusMama (Aug 10, 2005)

hahaha, i took my kids from a city in the midwest to go live on a sustainable off the grid farm ( i know this is one extreme to another) and it was a slightly difficult adjustment period, but living in the country especially nature, trees and forest is so fulfilling to the soul, there is nothing like even just sitting under a tree for hours or running barefoot through fields. Even some of my best childhood memories are from when I would go stay with friends that lived in the country







:


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## RunnerDuck (Sep 12, 2003)

One thing I HATE about our street is lack of friends for my son on the street. There is one 6yo boy he could play with but the family is kind of ... odd. I hate that my child is lonely and bored and lack of friends can be a huge problem.

BUT.

You have twins. So you have a sibling pair that can play together. (My kids are 15 months and 5 years - the 5 yo can't really play with the babies and I am so looking forward to NOT having this worry with my girls no matter where we live when they are older)

Also you will have a huge natural playground at your disposal. I grew up on a street that dead ended into acres and acres of woods. I also had 2 kids on the street my age to play with. With or without them, many, many, many hours were spent wandering in those woods. Exploring, imagining, looking for violets or raspberries, just meditating... LOVED IT.

WISH we had found a similar set up for our home - we had to purchase in a hurry so now we get to sit back a LONG time and think wow, we picked wrong!







:

(Ha ha... I don't feel too bad, though, as it seems to be a pretty common aspect of home buying...)

Anyway - I think your kids will be OK. I would just make sure to have other ways for them to make friends, have friends over, etc - that's what we do here, or try to - it's not ideal but it works. It would be so much better if my son could go exploring, though - that helps so much.


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## happydog (Apr 1, 2007)

We moved onto 200 acres when my kids were little. Most of the land was grazed by cattle but they had plenty of places to play, and no near neighbors. They're grown now and they all look back and say it was the best time in their lives. They never missed having friends. They had animals to play with and plenty to do in the woods.

The good thing about living in the country is that they can go outside and play nearly all the time. City (or subdivision) life is so unnatural for kids. It's not safe to go out and just roam free all day, so they sit inside watching tv, playing video games, eating, and arguing. In the country they're running free, soaking up the sun and fresh air and eating fresh vegetables right out of the garden.

One of my son's favorite memories is after the big kids left for school we'd go out to the garden to pick peas. We'd just sit in the middle of the pea patch and feel the warm sun on our faces and eat our fill of peas. It was a fine breakfast. We all have wonderful memories. It's a much gentler and more natural way to bring up kids.


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