s/o Where do the cool, grounded parents live?

[Anonymous]

22308/Fort Hunt. We moved from Arlington and it is night and day different. Much more relaxed/not as competitive and many of the families are a pleasure to be around. The area is teeming with kids and there is a hang out culture with the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Falls Church - NOT the city, the parts that are in FFX county. Greenway downs, Falls Hill, etc.

+1 - also the MC/UMC people who live in Lake Barcroft area of Falls Church and send their kids to the public schools. They actually walk the walk.

+2

[Anonymous]

I live on Mason Neck, which is fairly relaxed for Fairfax County, but there's also a fair amount of the typical competitiveness about AAP, what boat you have, how nice your house is...etc... I think cool and grounded does not exist in DC area.

[Anonymous]

I love how this thread is equal parts people offering chill neighborhoods and people claiming that such neighborhoods don't exist anywhere in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

No, I'm in Old Town and Alexandria parents are only cool until their kid gets to school age and they are terrified of ACPS and either get competitive about applying to SSSAS or moving to FCPS

We live in Rosemont, which feeds to Maury. No one was terrified of sending their kids there. But I would also say that no one was really that chill - people were perfectly nice, but not laid back, if that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I'm not comfortable sharing my address here, unfortunately.

Found a hall monitor!

Dude, you have no sense of humor.

[Anonymous]

Definitely not in McLean

[Anonymous]

Arlington Ridge, Del Ray, Old town, some pockets in Vienna


No, I'm in Old Town and Alexandria parents are only cool until their kid gets to school age and they are terrified of ACPS and either get competitive about applying to SSSAS or moving to FCPS.



lol. SSSAS is so 2005. Not even remotely competitive anymore.


+1 Was SSSAS ever competitive?


No, it’s not especially competitive. It is also fairly grounded and down to earth, as expensive private schools go.

I'll agree with this. My son went for a few years. It was a nice group of kids. The school very much wants kids who are averagely smart and well rounded. I was pretty disappointed there was nothing different they would do for my son when it became clear he needed more advanced work in one subject, so we moved him and our money elsewhere. But I'm not trying to slam the school at all - he made good friends there, and it would be a wonderful fit for a different kind of kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely not in McLean

+1

We moved from McLean to Oakton. I wouldn’t say they are cooler here, but definitely more chill and grounded. My kids were stuck inside all day in McLean, or outside by themselves. Even before COVID, no one played outside. Everyone seemed to be in structured activities, at the club, private school events, or travel sports tournaments. Our new neighborhood has packs of kids riding bikes, building forts, and having Nerf wars. We’re probably the least chill, as my kids still plays travel sports. We’re much happier here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posting like the 5th yes to Silver Spring: 20910, 20902, 20901

+7 (or whatever). Lots of "chill" families and even some "cool" ones (but not me).

[Anonymous]

At Ruth Chris steakhouse on NYE with a toddler in tow.

[Anonymous]

I’ve lived in the DC area for 8 years and have hoped to find this and never have. We moved to the Del Ray/Rosemont area in the hope that we would find our tribe and although some people are nice and generally progressive —- cool and grounded they are not. I think you have to move out of DC (as I want to do!) for this sadly.

[Anonymous]

Nobody inside the beltway is cool.

Go to C-Ville.

[Anonymous]

Never on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean cool or chill?
I live in a slightly cheaper part of Bethesda and there are lots of chill parents who drink beer in their front yard and just hang out. There are also crazy intense or competitive ones, but I take a live and let live attitude towards them.
But Im not at all cool—I’m sitting here in my Old Navy shorts with skechers i got at costco at a house rental at deep creek with my minivan parked out front. And I might turn on an 80s pop/new wave mix from spotify shortly.
So chill —yes, cool,— no.
I tend to think that people who are cool tend not to be very chill, IME, but I’ll admit that’s not universally true.

I'm with you, PP! I've always said one of the great reliefs of being a parent is not having to worry about being cool anymore. I do enjoy my beer drinking, nerdy pop culture, new wave, and dragging my kids on hikes, but that was me as a dorky 20 year old, just without the kids.

That said, I do know some cool parents, and they live all over the place in rich neighborhoods and very middle class ones. Chill is more environmentally influenced, I think it's hard to stay totally chill when other parents set the tone for how kids are scheduled, how they meet, etc.