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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
Ask the (former) DC Urban child!
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Anonymous
Different poster, but this is a flat out weird place to grow up. I had, at various times, Joe Lieberman, Sonny Bono, Kitty Kelley, and various ambassadors as neighbors. Cool, right? But also, just... not normal. Also, we are surrounded by an enormous amount of wealth and variety in DC, to such an extent that it's really easy to feel a kind of culture shock when you move outside of DC (or just your quadrant). PP is so right about a skewed idea of normal and it goes for everything, but especially socioeconomic stuff. I grew up thinking my family was middle class and they SO were upper middle, which sounds like a dumb thing, but it's really not, especially since it's important for kids (especially teenagers) to understand that stuff as they prepare to move about in the world. |
Anonymous
| What is the worst thing you have ever done? |
Anonymous
| I recently moved from NYC/NJ area and find that DC people to be aggressively rude, negative, and unfriendly. (This board being a perfect example) When i talk to other NYC/NJ transplants most agree. As someone who grew up here, moved, and came back do you notice the nasty DC attitude or does it just feel like home? |
Anonymous
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Blah blah blah anyone who grew up here had politicians live next door and all that, you think you are something special because you have friends that are famous
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Anonymous
| I hate when people who grew up here say life here is so "surreal." I live in Bethesda. Yet, where i grew up in NY was so much wealthier and snobbier than here (ditto for my DH from LA compared to here). We find it to be much more down to earth living here than our respective hometowns. |
jsteele
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I believe you have sort of missed the point. If the question is "what is it like to live here" and the answer is "you have politicians living near you", the fact that "anyone" has politicians living next door is simply confirmation that the answer was correct. That doesn't make the poster "special", but it does suggest he/she is good at answering questions. |
Anonymous
Well not until I posted this, but I kind of see it now! FWIW I do think that because DC is a city whose currency is proximity to power- unlike LA which is more about celebrity, or NYC which is more about money- people in DC can kind of develop a "Who do you know and what can you do for me?" attitude which can be offputting to some. I understand where it comes from, and I think there are similar drawbacks to living in NYC too ( I lived there for six years). But since it is a smaller city than NYC, I think its much easier to develop a niche of people that you genuinely like and enjoy spednign time with. |
Anonymous
You know what, I have no idea what its like to grow up in LA or NYC. Saying that it's surreal to grow up here in no way implies that it is more surreal than growing up in either of those places- its just stating what its like growing up here. Everything isn't a competetion. |
Anonymous
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How is the parking, snow removal, and trash pickup in DC?
Suck, suck, and suck? |
Anonymous
| OP, you're hardly the only DC native on the forum. But you are maybe the first to open yourself to abusive posters just because you're a DC native. I grew up east of the park and went to DCPS. No politicians next door, but there was a judge (which is pretty political here, at least to get appointed). I think my life growing up was pretty normal. At least, when I compare it to friends that grew up in other places, there's not a ton that was so different - especially if they grew up in a good-sized city with lots of cultural opportunities (museums, shows, etc.) |
Anonymous
| Do you know my husband? He went to Sidwell ('87). |
Anonymous
| I love how everyone is coming on here and flaming the OP about how growing up in DC isn't special and its no different than anywhere else, but doesn't this forum exist because it is different? I mean, I know that I like to post here because we all live in a similar area and know area resources, schools etc. So why would it be weird to talk to someone who grew up here? And in regards to the PP, there are definitely some DC natives on here, but most of the mom's I know in real life are from somewhere else, as am I. If someone wanted to send their kid to my old high school in New Hampshire I would be happy to tell them the pros and cons! I know the OP came off as a bit snotty, but I don't think she intended to be. I for one, want every resource out there to try to help me figure the best way to raise my child, so if people are offering advice I listen and then disregard as needed. |
Anonymous
I don't think it's just DC where you find that. I grew up in a wealthy town and also thought my family was middle class. (We had a barn in the backyard filled with four horses!) I assumed those kids living on a side street in town in single-story houses were all working class. Embarrassing now but not really all that surprising that a teenager would get such a skewed view of the world. |
Anonymous
| To me the weirdest thing about DC was the two years where we had 9/11, West Nile virus and malaria in the mosquitoes, anthrax scares at the local post offices, the Freeway sniper, and the tractor guy threatening to blow himself up in the reflecting pool. I walked out of the house every day speculating on the odds of traffic being disrupted by some crazy thing going on which, however small, still could kill me if my luck were really really bad. |
Anonymous
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It is nice of OP to be willing to offer her 2 cents, but I think it's important to remember how much the city has changed over the course of a generation.
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