I'm also finding this post very interesting. Many of you talk about teaching your kids to be street smart, and how to size up a situation. OP said that she grew up in a rural area. What if she doesn't feel like she is street smart? that's how I would feel if I lived in the city. I love the idea of raising scrappy, self-sufficient city kids, but I don't know if I'm equipped to teach them what they would need to know. We would be learning together.

Although, I grew up in a small town and I think that gives you a little bit of everything. There were no suburbs or bad neighborhoods. One HS so everyone went to school together. Doctors' kids, country kids, Crips and Bloods, preppies, druggies, jocks - all under one roof.

I really like the PPs idea of telling your kids they can call for a ride home, no questions asked. I need to remember that one someday.

I am a parent of a middle schooler on Capitol Hill. Lugging strollers up and down the steps and not finding parking on my street made me want to flee to the burbs, but having a kid who can walk to the majority of his activities has made sticking it out worth it. My kid can run to the store for me, can get to his own baseball game and piano class and there is a great community that watches out for each others kids. My kid also knows how to take the city bus (we haven't attempted metro yet). Driving age in DC is 18 and I like that he will at least be safe from making bad choices during HS in terns of getting into a car where he or the driver is drunk.