If you could live anywhere, where would you raise children?

[Anonymous]

DH is a physician and I am a SAHM. We have $2m of home equity and substantial savings. We moved to a well regarded public school neighborhood in the DMV and now looking into privates that aren’t so convenient to get to. This whole process has got me thinking about moving. I don’t love it here in the DC area. We could easily move within the DMV or somewhere else.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

What type of environment do you think would be best to raise children?

We moved to a supposed top school district but most of our neighbors send their kids to private school. We moved right before Covid and the public school was disappointing. The ratings are high because of the high SES neighborhood, not the actual school.

[Anonymous]

I would love to know what school system you are in.

We do not love DC, how busy it is, etc but stay because we both grew up in red states and under no circumstance will we raise our kids there. We will take the inconveniences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH is a physician and I am a SAHM. We have $2m of home equity and substantial savings. We moved to a well regarded public school neighborhood in the DMV and now looking into privates that aren’t so convenient to get to. This whole process has got me thinking about moving. I don’t love it here in the DC area. We could easily move within the DMV or somewhere else.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

What type of environment do you think would be best to raise children?

We moved to a supposed top school district but most of our neighbors send their kids to private school. We moved right before Covid and the public school was disappointing. The ratings are high because of the high SES neighborhood, not the actual school.

In the US? Perhaps Westport or Greenwich CT, Palo Alto CA, Park City UT, Bozeman MT, Lexington MA or Aspen CO. All have excellent schools but VHCOL. Pretty sure all have town-based school districts.

For something more budget-friendly and more laid-back, consider Berwyn PA (Treddyfrin-Easttown School District) and Edina MN.

[Anonymous]

If I could afford to live *anywhere*, I would live somewhere in Brooklyn or Manhattan and send my kids to private.

[Anonymous]

Vancouver

[Anonymous]

Hawaii

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to know what school system you are in.

We do not love DC, how busy it is, etc but stay because we both grew up in red states and under no circumstance will we raise our kids there. We will take the inconveniences.

I was interested where others would ideally live here in the DMV or elsewhere.

We live in McLean. The privates I like are in DC or MD. We could easily move anywhere in the DMV. DH is high in a demand field and should be able to work anywhere.

[Anonymous]

I'd probably aim for a small college town. I think the "good" school districts just translate to the rich ones and more rural districts tend to be more chill and flexible to kids with different needs and personalities. A college town because it means that a decent percentage of the parents will still be academically/educationally minded and there's likely to be opportunities for enrichment, etc.

[Anonymous]

Bay Area. I’ve lived in NYC, DC and Boston and they are over rated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH is a physician and I am a SAHM. We have $2m of home equity and substantial savings. We moved to a well regarded public school neighborhood in the DMV and now looking into privates that aren’t so convenient to get to. This whole process has got me thinking about moving. I don’t love it here in the DC area. We could easily move within the DMV or somewhere else.

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

What type of environment do you think would be best to raise children?

We moved to a supposed top school district but most of our neighbors send their kids to private school. We moved right before Covid and the public school was disappointing. The ratings are high because of the high SES neighborhood, not the actual school.

A neighborhood where kids play outside. Where kids go to the same school.

[Anonymous]

Florida for sure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bay Area. I’ve lived in NYC, DC and Boston and they are over rated

I am from the Bay Area (I have lived in SF proper as well as the East Bay and then the Peninsula) and it is extremely overrated. Every complaint people have about DC is magnified ten times there--expensive, homeless problem, competitive parents, even more overcrowded schools (even the good ones--thanks to California Prop 13, the property tax base is low even in really expensive districts because you have people like my mom who pays taxes on 200k for a house with a market value of 1.5 million), very high home insurance rates (you have to carry earthquake and brush fire if you live in a desirable part) and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd probably aim for a small college town. I think the "good" school districts just translate to the rich ones and more rural districts tend to be more chill and flexible to kids with different needs and personalities. A college town because it means that a decent percentage of the parents will still be academically/educationally minded and there's likely to be opportunities for enrichment, etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Florida for sure

Orlando

[Anonymous]

If a European or Asian city that actually cares about children and families and has infrastructure in place to facilitate raising them is out of the question, I guess I'd go with Vermont. Something right in Burlington so you have access to plenty of services. I think raising kids in nature is great, Vermont has 4 seasons, and while New Englanders are not perfect, they do okay -- not as stressed out/work obsessed as people here, the gun culture is offset by liberal politics and low crime, community-minded but in a hands off way so you don't wind up with super nosy neighbors telling you how to raise your kids all the time.

But honestly, raising kids in the United States of America in the year 2023 is very much a catch-22. We are a rich country and have more of everything than pretty much anywhere else. But a lot of the good stuff we have more of can be hard to access if you aren't rich (fortunately you are rich, so that eases that) and we also have more of all the terrible stuff -- guns, crime, drugs, mental health problems, etc.

I'd personally rather have less overall wealth and even less individual opportunity in exchange for less of all the negative externalities, too. I know not everyone would make that tradeoff, but I absolutely would.