What neighborhoods are best for kids?

[Anonymous]

Zero diversity at Somerset. Some international families who leave after two years.

[Anonymous]

Silver Spring - North Hills, Four Corners, Forest Glen

Takoma Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trying to avoid wealthy neighbors is, frankly, odd. You're stereotyping, assuming that all wealthy parents raise their children poorly and impart bad values; you're assuming exposure to a well to do lifestyle is somehow going to have a negative influence on your own children. There is no basis for believing either proposition is necessarily true.

You could just as easily assume that wealthier parents model behaviors necessary for success - ambition, education, determination, persistence, organization, flexibility, self-discipline, vision, and other behaviors sometimes absent in those who achieve less financially.

You seem to have forgotten that you have a role to play in imparting values to your children, who are exposed every day to behaviors and beliefs which you may find abhorrent and which have nothing to do with income or assets.

Forget about using income as a criterion in itself, and focus instead on objectively valuiable neighborehood attributes, like excellent schools, without regard to whether they are in high-income neighborhoods. Consider, too, why such schools are usually/always in higher-income neighborhoods.

How many parents around here are able to afford a home in a wealthy area because their parents help them out? That doesn't necessarily translate into "the parents had ambition, education, determination, persistence, organization, flexibility, self-discipline, vision", inasmuch as it says, "my parents helped me out alot because I couldn't do this on my own".

[Anonymous]

Somerset is a nice place to raise kids, don’t get me wrong, but diversity and getting exposed to different kinds of people is not one reason for it being a good neighborhood. Diversity is not a universal good anyway: I don’t wanna be close to convicts or violent people

If you can afford Somerset, sure, go live there. They’ll do great, since it means you have the resources to help the kid if anything should arise. It’s just a wealthy neighborhood in MoCo, with the problems of wealthy neighborhoods (drugs in high schools, pressure cooker environment, you’ll have to work to teach tour kids empathy toward people that would never be able to afford living in a wealthy neigborhood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Flora Singer, Forest Knolls, or Rock Creek Forest ES areas of Silver Spring

Bancroft or Ludlow-Taylor ES zones in DC

Not as familiar with VA--Falls Church, Del Ray, and South Arlington all seem nice. I know a recent grad of ACHS who is lovely and had a great childhood, so it seems like lots of parts of Alexandria could work.

Del Ray is fantastic. Kids roaming the streets, eating at the burger places, Mexican, etc. My DS and his friends routinely Metro to Nats games, Smithsonian, protests, etc. And AC sent him to a T20 school, along with his friends. Be warned though- people love to hate on it the same way people hate on the pretty girl in HS.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax City. Particularly the neighborhoods right by the High School or the ones along Fairfax Blvd. Especially id your commute is Farragut Square or West. I use hot lanes and don't go in everyday. Its about 35 minutes to from my driveway to my buildings garage. Metro is a 32 minute ride to Farragut West. Not bad. Takes me about 10 minutes to get to the station and park. Maybe a 5 minute walk leaving the station. These neighborhoods are family friendly, good schools, Middle class and reasonably diverse.

[Anonymous]

Needs to be a neighborhood with other children. My BIL grew up in a neighborhood of 11 houses with no other children at home. It warped the way he grew up emotionally, always on the outside. He had to go to other children, no one ever came to him. Yes, he was shy, but I grew up shy in a neighborhood full of children. I was always where the action was, even if in the periphery. He was left out.

[Anonymous]

Waynewood/22308.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP, I actually used to sled down Cumberland Ave as a kid! That said, I’m not sure I want the same neighborhood for my kids. It was wealthy then and it seems like it’s even more wealthy now. Can a place where all the houses are $2m + be ideal for kids, even if we can afford it? I guess I’m trying to figure out where the Somerset of the 80’s is now. Because Somerset of now feels more like Kenwood then, or something. Maybe I’m being unfair.

You have to ask these things on dcum, because no one can have this conversation in real life. It’s too obnoxious. But I think we must not be the only ones in a situation where if we were childless, we might spend more, but for now we’re basically crafting our home life in service of raising our kids, and it’s maybe not optimal to just buy the most expensive house we can.

I’m not even sure what I’m worried about with the homogenous wealth, I just feel wary of it. Maybe it’s entitlement? Maybe it’s a sort of helplessness that some kids develop from having the skids greased too much? Maybe it’s pressure to maintain that lifestyle that I don’t want my kid to have?

But who am I kidding that if I buy my kid a used Camry instead of a Range Rover or whatever it’s going to make a meaningful difference? And in the meantime, would it be a better life if we lived in a big house near a pool?

I get this. We live in East Bethesda and I sometimes wonder if we should have bought in SS but the reality is we like our neighborhood a lot (and maybe I’d like it more if we had a neighborhood pool).

I’m hoping it comes down to how you raise them— I’m not going to make my kids take out student loans for college just so they have “skin in the game” — I’m going to hope I can raise them to take college seriously.

[Anonymous]

I went to too many mansion parties with "W" grads snorting coke up their noses and living off their parents well through their late 20s.

[Anonymous]

FCC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to too many mansion parties with "W" grads snorting coke up their noses and living off their parents well through their late 20s.

You convinced me to move to Whitman area. I want my kid to be a fratstar, and he won’t get there without experience with white powder

[Anonymous]

The part that is so unique to Somerset is the neighborhood pool and swim team for kids. You can’t find that in many areas. The kids then get to know all of the other, older kids in the neighborhood who are babysitters, camp counselors and junior coaches for the swim team. And the kids have friends throughout the neighborhood. All you have to do is show up at the pool and there is someone to play with. It is an idyllic place for children to grow up.

[Anonymous]

Bradley Hills in Bethesda. Not as rich as Somerset, very family/kid friendly, very diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bradley Hills in Bethesda. Not as rich as Somerset, very family/kid friendly, very diverse.

Of the schools in the Whitman cluster, Bradley Hills ES is the whitest, and has the lowest FARMS rate.