Relocating to DC...what's life like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NWDC is friendly and a great place to raise kids, especially if you want them to have a sense of confidence in navigating cities as they grow into adolescence. A great mix of interesting people. I love living here. Good luck with your move!

Stressful, cut throat, superficial, competitive, sneaky, petty too when it comes to kids. The schools in NW can be pressure cookers. Works for some kids but if you have kid who are not top students they will feel behind.

Not our experience at all.

DC is very open to transplants, but there are a lot of people who think they are super-important, or too busy to make friends, or really competitive, etc. But it's not everyone! There are lots of nice people who are friendly, especially if your kids are in school together. Like anywhere else, you have to sift through to find your people. Lots of kid-friendly stuff to do, tons of museums and international stuff with the embassies, etc.

People with kids live in apartments, condos, rowhouses, and SFHs. Our apartment building is full of families with kids who go to school with ours, along with the people in the expensive houses.

[Anonymous]

OP here - Hopefully can find something Georgetown...if that is even considered NW?? Liked the proximity to things and seemed like decent schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Hopefully can find something Georgetown...if that is even considered NW?? Liked the proximity to things and seemed like decent schools

Look for something zoned for Mann.

[Anonymous]

Budget? Where are you working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Currently, we are not looking at private schools. Have registered for the online EdFest next weekend. Do families with kids live in row houses or are they typically in single family detached homes? Really miss the walkability of Hong Kong and being close to good food, shopping, coffee, etc. Thanks so much for everyone's feedback!!

In NW there are more urban areas, and more suburban areas. If you want walkability to coffee shops and bookstores etc., try Chevy Chase DC, Cleveland Park, and Tenleytown.

https://tenleytownmainstreet.org/

https://www.longandfoster.com/dc/washington/chevy-chase

https://www.longandfoster.com/DC/Washington/Cleveland-Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NWDC is friendly and a great place to raise kids, especially if you want them to have a sense of confidence in navigating cities as they grow into adolescence. A great mix of interesting people. I love living here. Good luck with your move!

Stressful, cut throat, superficial, competitive, sneaky, petty too when it comes to kids. The schools in NW can be pressure cookers. Works for some kids but if you have kid who are not top students they will feel behind.

This has been our experience. Absolutely awful. My husband grew up here and so actually believes that kids' childhoods are supposed to be some kind of strenuous boot camp for life. His childhood in DC was basically an elitist pressure cooker under the thumb of a narcissit mother. Other than the narcissist mother, my poor children have experienced the same. They hate it and can't wait to go somewhere where real people live. They cannot believe how friendly people in the world are when they go to other places.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I'm a SAHM, my husband works in digital/cloud consulting. Budget probably needs to be $1.8, although we'd LOVE to spend less!! The market is so tough for buyers at the moment, so we just might have to push the budget. We were going to relocate this year, but houses in DC would be pending in a few hours. If we don't live there, I don't know how we will be able to purchase. I'm sure our current house will sell quickly, however, I feel we'll have to live in an apartment in DC for a while as it would be a miracle to get the first house we make an offer on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Currently, we are not looking at private schools. Have registered for the online EdFest next weekend. Do families with kids live in row houses or are they typically in single family detached homes? Really miss the walkability of Hong Kong and being close to good food, shopping, coffee, etc. Thanks so much for everyone's feedback!!

There’s a mix, but more detached houses. We preferred not to live in a single-family house, though. We were tired of the maintenance. We walk or bike or take Metro most places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NWDC is friendly and a great place to raise kids, especially if you want them to have a sense of confidence in navigating cities as they grow into adolescence. A great mix of interesting people. I love living here. Good luck with your move!

Stressful, cut throat, superficial, competitive, sneaky, petty too when it comes to kids. The schools in NW can be pressure cookers. Works for some kids but if you have kid who are not top students they will feel behind.

PP here. Could be, certainly - think it depends on a lot of different variables. Mostly I worry about the wealth and privilege, which set up the wrong expectations for kids. But I like living here nonetheless. Everything involves tradeoffs.

[Anonymous]

expensive

[Anonymous]

OP, where in Wisconsin do you live?! I grew up near Milwaukee (Elm Grove) and am a UW-Madison grad. I haven't found many Wisconsin transplants here. There are things about WI I miss and things I absolutely do not. We are in Cleveland Park -- two kids, ages 6 and 3 -- and generally really like it. Georgetown has always felt very touristy to me and not super neighborhood-y or kid friendly. Also it's not zoned for the "preferred" middle school (which may or may not be a big deal to you).

Most people in DC are transplants, so it doesn't have the insular vibe that Wisconsin often does, but that's a double edged sword as it also means that the area is pretty transient, people can be a bit too focused on their careers, and there's definitely a competitive vibe. It can take awhile to find "your people" but you can do it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, where in Wisconsin do you live?! I grew up near Milwaukee (Elm Grove) and am a UW-Madison grad. I haven't found many Wisconsin transplants here. There are things about WI I miss and things I absolutely do not. We are in Cleveland Park -- two kids, ages 6 and 3 -- and generally really like it. Georgetown has always felt very touristy to me and not super neighborhood-y or kid friendly. Also it's not zoned for the "preferred" middle school (which may or may not be a big deal to you).

Most people in DC are transplants, so it doesn't have the insular vibe that Wisconsin often does, but that's a double edged sword as it also means that the area is pretty transient, people can be a bit too focused on their careers, and there's definitely a competitive vibe. It can take awhile to find "your people" but you can do it!

OP here - Very cool! We are in New Berlin. Three kids...6, 4 and 2. We aren't originally from Wisconsin, but have lived in various areas of Chicago and Milwaukee for the past seven years. Thanks for the info on Georgetown and can totally understand the tourist thing! Yes, the schools are important for us, but also conscious of hopefully not getting into this "pressure cooker" thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NWDC is friendly and a great place to raise kids, especially if you want them to have a sense of confidence in navigating cities as they grow into adolescence. A great mix of interesting people. I love living here. Good luck with your move!

Stressful, cut throat, superficial, competitive, sneaky, petty too when it comes to kids. The schools in NW can be pressure cookers. Works for some kids but if you have kid who are not top students they will feel behind.

PP here. Could be, certainly - think it depends on a lot of different variables. Mostly I worry about the wealth and privilege, which set up the wrong expectations for kids. But I like living here nonetheless. Everything involves tradeoffs.

OP here - Thank you and appreciate the honesty. The wealth thing is understandable. When living HK, I became used to/numb to seeing Ferraris and Rolls all of the time. Love the open spaces that I hear DC has and of course the museums, national attractions, etc. Unsure how all of that is working with COVID, but life moves forward I guess.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of apartment/condo buildings along Connecticut Avenue in NWDC that are zoned for good elementary schools, so you night try looking along that corridor from Woodley Park up into Chevy Chase (DC). We are in-bounds for Murch and live in Forest Hills and we love it. Close to the Soapstone Trail (a spur into Rock Creek Park), a great bookstore, a great wine store, a great bakery, etc. Easy to commute on the Red Line, easy to get to the library and the Zoo and lots of other stuff, as well as easy to get into downtown for museums and other cultural resources.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NWDC is friendly and a great place to raise kids, especially if you want them to have a sense of confidence in navigating cities as they grow into adolescence. A great mix of interesting people. I love living here. Good luck with your move!

LOL. Navigating the big city around Janney Elementary . . .