If you had the money, would you raise your kids in NYC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely. However, if you think the suburban way of life is ideal, you won’t like it. I find our kids in this area have zero street smarts, little familiarity with people not like them, and can’t even figure out how to take the damn bus and their parents are afraid to let them do so. I found better community in NYC and more people looking out for us as kids than we do here. Sure a house in Greenwich is nice, but honestly way more of those kids were douchey than the ones in the city.

Why does it always seem like people compare NYC to rural Midwest? I actually grew up in Greenwich and I used to bike to the train station with my friends on a Saturday morning and spend the day in the city, taking public transportation and all.

But yes, there were some douchey kids, I’ll give you that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to get their ideas of nyc from movies and TV.

We live in NYC, but in a quiet corner with a lot of international neighbors and several nearby parks. Middle or upper middle class. Kids are in public school, which they love and is much more rigorous than their DC area school. The kids actually seem more innocent than in DC - our 5th grader still pretend plays with her friends in the garden area of our apartment building. They have a whole gnome village hidden in the plants. They spend hours there, and the doormen keep their secret.

The adults in NYC are not obsessed with status or what colleges they went to, unlike when we were in DC. I know what college every single person I know in DC went to, but I have no idea where our friends in nyc went to college (although a lot are international so it would be meaningless to me anyway). People do talk incessantly about real estate though. That gets old.

Also, people here keep saying at NYC is dysfunctional. When comparing NYC to DC, this is not our experience at all. DC was pretty dysfunctional, too, and not as safe as our neighborhood in NYC.

This has to be the biggest joke ever.

Nope. I live in NYC and it truly can be like this. If you’ve never lived here, you just don’t know. Visiting Times Square several times doesn’t make you familiar with NYC.

It sounds like anywhere though. I used to live in an UMC neighborhood in a rural area with a lot of doctors and engineers here on J-1 visas. The kids played in the creek. We had to do a little fanangling with school and had kind of a mix of public school and homeschool co-op.
Why deal with all of the hassle and expense of NYC to have a midwestern life?

We deal with it because in NYC we have ready access to jobs, art, music, theater, excellent healthcare, etc. that is more difficult to find in rural areas of the Midwest. Additionally, having some well-off neighbors on a J-1 visa is not the true diversity of having kids from all over the world and with variable incomes and of different religions in your kids’ school. It’s also fun to get up on a Saturday morning and wonder if you should all go walk around Central Park, or go whale watching by the Statue of Liberty, get dim sum, walk over the Brooklyn bridge and get pizza, or see if you can get cheap tickets to a broadway show. These things are more important to some people than others, which is not to say that there is a better way, but that is why we deal.

Having a baby/toddler is, I think, hard in NYC, and this is when everyone leaves. But if you stick it out, teens/tweens in NYC have so much more independence - and I don’t have to schlepp my kids around every time they have a playdate.

Compared to a rural area, yes. But in any large US city you have access to music, art, great healthcare etc. also how often with young kids are you really attending concerts, art museums etc. Nothing you listed presents a compelling argument that one should raise kids in NYC. Nothing you listed is unique to NY. Well the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn bridge but c’mon who cares.

We live in NYC with two elementary age kids - in September we went to museums/zoo three times. We saw Harry Styles, Ben Platt, Billy Joel, and Eric Clapton. We do fun stuff every weekend.

We have all this stuff too in dc and the museums are free here bug a boo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to get their ideas of nyc from movies and TV.

We live in NYC, but in a quiet corner with a lot of international neighbors and several nearby parks. Middle or upper middle class. Kids are in public school, which they love and is much more rigorous than their DC area school. The kids actually seem more innocent than in DC - our 5th grader still pretend plays with her friends in the garden area of our apartment building. They have a whole gnome village hidden in the plants. They spend hours there, and the doormen keep their secret.

The adults in NYC are not obsessed with status or what colleges they went to, unlike when we were in DC. I know what college every single person I know in DC went to, but I have no idea where our friends in nyc went to college (although a lot are international so it would be meaningless to me anyway). People do talk incessantly about real estate though. That gets old.

Also, people here keep saying at NYC is dysfunctional. When comparing NYC to DC, this is not our experience at all. DC was pretty dysfunctional, too, and not as safe as our neighborhood in NYC.

This has to be the biggest joke ever.

Nope. I live in NYC and it truly can be like this. If you’ve never lived here, you just don’t know. Visiting Times Square several times doesn’t make you familiar with NYC.

It sounds like anywhere though. I used to live in an UMC neighborhood in a rural area with a lot of doctors and engineers here on J-1 visas. The kids played in the creek. We had to do a little fanangling with school and had kind of a mix of public school and homeschool co-op.
Why deal with all of the hassle and expense of NYC to have a midwestern life?

We deal with it because in NYC we have ready access to jobs, art, music, theater, excellent healthcare, etc. that is more difficult to find in rural areas of the Midwest. Additionally, having some well-off neighbors on a J-1 visa is not the true diversity of having kids from all over the world and with variable incomes and of different religions in your kids’ school. It’s also fun to get up on a Saturday morning and wonder if you should all go walk around Central Park, or go whale watching by the Statue of Liberty, get dim sum, walk over the Brooklyn bridge and get pizza, or see if you can get cheap tickets to a broadway show. These things are more important to some people than others, which is not to say that there is a better way, but that is why we deal.

Having a baby/toddler is, I think, hard in NYC, and this is when everyone leaves. But if you stick it out, teens/tweens in NYC have so much more independence - and I don’t have to schlepp my kids around every time they have a playdate.

Compared to a rural area, yes. But in any large US city you have access to music, art, great healthcare etc. also how often with young kids are you really attending concerts, art museums etc. Nothing you listed presents a compelling argument that one should raise kids in NYC. Nothing you listed is unique to NY. Well the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn bridge but c’mon who cares.

We live in NYC with two elementary age kids - in September we went to museums/zoo three times. We saw Harry Styles, Ben Platt, Billy Joel, and Eric Clapton. We do fun stuff every weekend.

We have all this stuff too in dc and the museums are free here bug a boo

After getting used to the free museums in DC it was a bit of a surprising to see the fees charged everywhere in NYC. The friends we were visiting had some type of corporate card and we went on that but it would have added up if we were paying ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people seem to get their ideas of nyc from movies and TV.

We live in NYC, but in a quiet corner with a lot of international neighbors and several nearby parks. Middle or upper middle class. Kids are in public school, which they love and is much more rigorous than their DC area school. The kids actually seem more innocent than in DC - our 5th grader still pretend plays with her friends in the garden area of our apartment building. They have a whole gnome village hidden in the plants. They spend hours there, and the doormen keep their secret.

The adults in NYC are not obsessed with status or what colleges they went to, unlike when we were in DC. I know what college every single person I know in DC went to, but I have no idea where our friends in nyc went to college (although a lot are international so it would be meaningless to me anyway). People do talk incessantly about real estate though. That gets old.

Also, people here keep saying at NYC is dysfunctional. When comparing NYC to DC, this is not our experience at all. DC was pretty dysfunctional, too, and not as safe as our neighborhood in NYC.

This has to be the biggest joke ever.

Nope. I live in NYC and it truly can be like this. If you’ve never lived here, you just don’t know. Visiting Times Square several times doesn’t make you familiar with NYC.

It sounds like anywhere though. I used to live in an UMC neighborhood in a rural area with a lot of doctors and engineers here on J-1 visas. The kids played in the creek. We had to do a little fanangling with school and had kind of a mix of public school and homeschool co-op.
Why deal with all of the hassle and expense of NYC to have a midwestern life?

We deal with it because in NYC we have ready access to jobs, art, music, theater, excellent healthcare, etc. that is more difficult to find in rural areas of the Midwest. Additionally, having some well-off neighbors on a J-1 visa is not the true diversity of having kids from all over the world and with variable incomes and of different religions in your kids’ school. It’s also fun to get up on a Saturday morning and wonder if you should all go walk around Central Park, or go whale watching by the Statue of Liberty, get dim sum, walk over the Brooklyn bridge and get pizza, or see if you can get cheap tickets to a broadway show. These things are more important to some people than others, which is not to say that there is a better way, but that is why we deal.

Having a baby/toddler is, I think, hard in NYC, and this is when everyone leaves. But if you stick it out, teens/tweens in NYC have so much more independence - and I don’t have to schlepp my kids around every time they have a playdate.

Compared to a rural area, yes. But in any large US city you have access to music, art, great healthcare etc. also how often with young kids are you really attending concerts, art museums etc. Nothing you listed presents a compelling argument that one should raise kids in NYC. Nothing you listed is unique to NY. Well the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn bridge but c’mon who cares.

We live in NYC with two elementary age kids - in September we went to museums/zoo three times. We saw Harry Styles, Ben Platt, Billy Joel, and Eric Clapton. We do fun stuff every weekend.

We have all this stuff too in dc and the museums are free here bug a boo

Pretty much all of the stuff New Yorkers do, especially with kids, people do everywhere.

But there are a lot of New Yorkers convinced their city is the end all be all and there’s no way we are possibly living just as good and interesting of a life. I remember reading this New Yorker article in what I recall was a column about life in NY. The article was about trash in one of the parks. The article was seriously insinuating that trash is unique to NYC.

[Anonymous]

wow, so much jealousy here. i lived in NYC for six years before kids. we recently spent a week there with our 3 kids (tween, elementary and preoschooler). we stayed at the hotel on the upper east side and it was amazing. the kids loved it so much and they keep saying how they want to live there when they grow up.

DC is garbage compared to NYC, it's not interesting and now walkable, it has weird architecture and it's just as dangerous or more dangerous at NYC. just compare central Park to the mall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow, so much jealousy here. i lived in NYC for six years before kids. we recently spent a week there with our 3 kids (tween, elementary and preoschooler). we stayed at the hotel on the upper east side and it was amazing. the kids loved it so much and they keep saying how they want to live there when they grow up.

DC is garbage compared to NYC, it's not interesting and now walkable, it has weird architecture and it's just as dangerous or more dangerous at NYC. just compare central Park to the mall.

I’m in California, not DC, but it is classically New York to believe anyone who doesn’t like NYC is just jealous. Lol.

[Anonymous]

I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

People can just not like a place, you know? I mean a lot of Californians don’t even like flying east past the Rockies, let alone living in NYC. There are also a lot of New Yorkers who flat-out won’t leave the city let alone contemplate living in California.

It is so weird to me that people believe that dislike must secretly be jealousy. That just smacks of insecurity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

People can just not like a place, you know? I mean a lot of Californians don’t even like flying east past the Rockies, let alone living in NYC. There are also a lot of New Yorkers who flat-out won’t leave the city let alone contemplate living in California.

It is so weird to me that people believe that dislike must secretly be jealousy. That just smacks of insecurity.

Its the vitriol about a place that they have never lived in. The vitriol is what makes these posters sound jealous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

People can just not like a place, you know? I mean a lot of Californians don’t even like flying east past the Rockies, let alone living in NYC. There are also a lot of New Yorkers who flat-out won’t leave the city let alone contemplate living in California.

It is so weird to me that people believe that dislike must secretly be jealousy. That just smacks of insecurity.

Its the vitriol about a place that they have never lived in. The vitriol is what makes these posters sound jealous.

I’m sorry, but that’s just silly insecurity on your part.

I have visited Colorado two times in my life. Both times the dryness made my skin split horribly and painfully. I didn’t like it. I’d never live there, even if I could live in the fanciest of Aspen houses. That doesn’t make me jealous of Colorado residents, it just makes me someone who doesn’t like Colorado. Claiming everyone who doesn’t like NYC is “just jealous” is kind of pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

People can just not like a place, you know? I mean a lot of Californians don’t even like flying east past the Rockies, let alone living in NYC. There are also a lot of New Yorkers who flat-out won’t leave the city let alone contemplate living in California.

It is so weird to me that people believe that dislike must secretly be jealousy. That just smacks of insecurity.

Its the vitriol about a place that they have never lived in. The vitriol is what makes these posters sound jealous.

I’m sorry, but that’s just silly insecurity on your part.

I have visited Colorado two times in my life. Both times the dryness made my skin split horribly and painfully. I didn’t like it. I’d never live there, even if I could live in the fanciest of Aspen houses. That doesn’t make me jealous of Colorado residents, it just makes me someone who doesn’t like Colorado. Claiming everyone who doesn’t like NYC is “just jealous” is kind of pathetic.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all you no's, just curious: Why? The crime? The hustle? Having to walk everywhere and not just be able to jump in your car? The expense? All or none of the above?

My husband grew up in Manhattan and couldn’t wait to get out. He attended a public magnet where most of the kids were brilliant but complex. Most have very poor relationships with their parents to this day (my husband included).

[Anonymous]

Nope. I want to see trees from the windows of my house, garden in my yard and have quiet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and certainly don't think its garbage but I do agree that a lot of the posters trashing NYC sound a wee bit jealous. NY does have an energy that you don't find anywhere else. Its certainly not for everyone, but I love it and would raise my kids there if I was wealthy.

People can just not like a place, you know? I mean a lot of Californians don’t even like flying east past the Rockies, let alone living in NYC. There are also a lot of New Yorkers who flat-out won’t leave the city let alone contemplate living in California.

It is so weird to me that people believe that dislike must secretly be jealousy. That just smacks of insecurity.

Its the vitriol about a place that they have never lived in. The vitriol is what makes these posters sound jealous.

I’m sorry, but that’s just silly insecurity on your part.

I have visited Colorado two times in my life. Both times the dryness made my skin split horribly and painfully. I didn’t like it. I’d never live there, even if I could live in the fanciest of Aspen houses. That doesn’t make me jealous of Colorado residents, it just makes me someone who doesn’t like Colorado. Claiming everyone who doesn’t like NYC is “just jealous” is kind of pathetic.

Truth

[Anonymous]

I'm a pp who said heck yes to NY, and we're currently raising kids here even without tons of money. I 100% get that it's not for everyone. But what makes me skeptical of many of the replies is when they cite reasons that make no sense. Crime concerns from someone in Boston, or DC? NYC is safer on I think every measure. "The high buildings" -- is this from someone who has only been to Manhattan? It's like many people are responding to a parody of Manhattan in the 80s, not a living city with hundreds of different neighborhoods.

It's like saying I don't want to raise my kids in DC because I don't want to have to see the White House out my window every day. Or bc I did an internship there in my 20s and everyone was singularly focused on going into politics or becoming a senator one day. For most of you DC residents I have to assume that's just a bizarre response bc it doesn't resonate at all with your actual lived experience.