Boston, NYC, DC - Best place to raise kids?

[Anonymous]

Well the founders of the country did go out of the way to find the least appealing place, somewhere in the middle, they could think of to put a capitol (a swamp). We all moved here anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston, hands down. DC is too insecure and materialistic. NYC would be great except too many people (for me) like Trump. Braggarts with nothing to back it up. Boston is great.

I've lived in all three cities.

Boston sucks

Yankees suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston and western suburbs are where I grew up. Public schools excellent especially in expensive towns where property taxes are high. No worries about religious fanatics interfering in schools. Plenty of activities and family fun. Ocean, skiing both have an easy drive.

Sadly NYC is not in good shape. The mayor isn’t doing a good job. The rat problem is gross. Until the garbage situation is fixed it’s not going to get any better. Who thought it would be a good idea putting plastic bags on the sidewalk fully of rotting food overnight until the garbage trucks get there. Oligarchs, Chinese billionaires and their children are living in the high end buildings. Without your own billion it would be hard to live as well as you’d want to.

DC - boring

That's been the way it's been done in NYC for decades. Not Adams' fault

The rat population has dramatically increased in the last few years and they have become bolder and bigger. The Rat Czar did require businesses to use bins not plastic bags so that will help. But there’s still way too many plastic bags on sidewalks. They are now required to wait until 9 pm to put them out. It’s cockroaches too, you see them heading to the bags they are not 9-5 workers.

I don’t think Adams is being aggressive enough. All plastic garbage bags need to be eliminated and people don’t need a two year notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston, hands down. DC is too insecure and materialistic. NYC would be great except too many people (for me) like Trump. Braggarts with nothing to back it up. Boston is great.

I've lived in all three cities.

DH is from Boston. I’m from NYC. Now we live in DC. DC seems like it is a good mix of everything.

Boston is all about where you went to school. NYC is money and looks. DC is a city full of smart, not that rich, not that good looking people.

A lot of people who went to Harvard or MIT or one of the many Boston medical schools stay in the Boston area no matter where they came from so they discuss schools a lot. NYC being about looks is accurate. Boston and DC not so much about looks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston, hands down. DC is too insecure and materialistic. NYC would be great except too many people (for me) like Trump. Braggarts with nothing to back it up. Boston is great.

I've lived in all three cities.

DH is from Boston. I’m from NYC. Now we live in DC. DC seems like it is a good mix of everything.

Boston is all about where you went to school. NYC is money and looks. DC is a city full of smart, not that rich, not that good looking people.

Then it’s perfect for you

We live in a lovely 10,000sf house. My kids are healthy and surrounded by families who are well educated. People are not too materialistic and not obsessed with looks. I think this is a good place to raise kids.

DH and I fit in in nyc, Boston and DC. We have a seven figure HHI and live well. I don’t think this money would go far in NYC.

You would have to downsize with a 7 figure salary. And if you’re a DC 9 you would probably be a NYC 5. Not saying that would matter to you.

[Anonymous]

When I’m back in Chicago I feel it

[Anonymous]

I’ve lived in all three places, and if money were no issue:

1. NYC
2. DC
3. Boston

[Anonymous]

Boston and surround suburbs are quaint, but unless you have lived there a long time communities can be insular. It is hard to “break into” groups and takes a lot of effort.
It’s easier if you have elementary school kids and there are PTA activities. Speaking from direct experience.

I can’t speak to NYC.

The DC area is more welcoming, experienced with new comers and there was a specific interest in our neighborhood & school to integrate and welcome new families.

That said, each school, community and neighborhood is different. It also depends on how active the parents are in creating/building and sustaining their own micro communities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYC, Upper West Side, Low 90s and down, near Central Park. Central Park is the best backyard.

But agreed, you need plenty of money to do it, especially with kids.

I would not let my little kids out to Central Park on their own; I do let them in our backyard alone.

[Anonymous]

If you're not white, Boston must be removed from this list.

If you are white, but support diverse communities, Boston loses a lot of points. I wouldn’t pick Boston mostly because I wouldn’t want to raise kids in a place with such thinly veiled racism.

So then between DC and NY I think it's just your preferences and personality. I pick close in suburbs of DC because its the easiest to navigate, decent commute to the city and also large houses with yards. Good public schools but also private options nearby. Lots of families. I also prefer government and politics gossip to entertainment and beauty gossip.

[Anonymous]

All of these places are fantastic places to grow up with good career opportunities, communities, and schools that come along with a high CoL. I would go by which place provides you the best career opportunities and family/friend community and decide which of those are worth more to you. If all your family is in the NYC metro, maybe that makes sense. If you work in government/politics, maybe DC makes sense. If you went to college in Boston and your best friends have all settled there and you have people to meet up with on the weekends, maybe that makes sense.

The rest of the pros/cons are overthinking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of these places are fantastic places to grow up with good career opportunities, communities, and schools that come along with a high CoL. I would go by which place provides you the best career opportunities and family/friend community and decide which of those are worth more to you. If all your family is in the NYC metro, maybe that makes sense. If you work in government/politics, maybe DC makes sense. If you went to college in Boston and your best friends have all settled there and you have people to meet up with on the weekends, maybe that makes sense.

The rest of the pros/cons are overthinking it.

If you have no personal ties to any of these places, then just go by which places you can get the best job or the best job market or the best balance of opportunities for you and your spouse and go with it.

[Anonymous]

Have lived in all three. Boston is the worst. Insular, provincial, and segregated. It's also cold and gray most of the year.

I'm with the earlier poster who thinks raising kids in DC is easier, but as the mom, miss NYC. My kids love NYC, and thankfully we get up there a lot. Will go back to NY after kids are older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with all three of these places is that the more money you have, the easier it is to raise kids there, and also the more insane and bad-for-kids the culture becomes. People don't always even engage in the behaviors intentionally, there's just this fear of being left behind and it's so toxic. It is sad to me when we see friends we selected specifically because they are down-to-earth and reasonable engage in the competitive, cut throat behaviors with regards to school (public or private, the well of families at both can be nuts), kid's activities, travel and conspicuous consumption.

Some kids do fine in it anyway, but some kids are more sensitive to some of the competitiveness and ostentatious behavior you see in these places. My oldest is this way, and we are actually moving from the DC are back to the midwest city near where my spouse grew up, because I think it will be a better environment for DD and she is less likely to absorb some of the worst behavior we see there. We also know the city well and that helps us be extra careful about where live and send our kids to school. I know we'll still run into a lot of the same behaviors, but it's not as amplified as it is here, and the expectations are not as dramatically high, especially for stuff like college outcomes.

I have never raised kids in NYC or Boston, but I'm guessing it's similar. You need a lot of money to raise kids in these places with choices and not to be financially stressed all the time (and just to access good schools), but then having a lot of money and being around people with a lot of money creates new problems.

This is really well said. I have found this to be true of this area - totally toxic. I have not resided elsewhere as an adult. There is an undesirable element in this area, and they would be the first piling it on about someone who mentioned it. The MO is to feign obliviousness about most things, especially something like the toxicity and antisocial tendencies, which only perpetuates the behaviors. it is kind of a fascinating social experiment/observation.

ooh, spot on with the feigning obliviousness. good observation.

[Anonymous]

None of the above