Anonymous wrote:I have two kids on competitive travel teams (baseball for one and soccer for the other) and we own a beach house. We're completely tied to these schedules in the fall and spring but we're at the beach every summer weekend and for the whole month of August. We just don't allow our kids on travel sports teams to do summer teams and so far (middle school) it hasn't been an issue. They have done camps in their respective sports at our beach location which honestly have been better than similar camps here in DC.

Also we have a really active social life here in DC and our 3 kids do as well. They each have 3-4 playdates per week during the school year (the older ones now just walk to their friends' houses so they're not "playdates" persay but they're always out and about here). We all love the change of pace at the beach... we get to dig in and just spend time as a family (or with the friends we have there or whatever friends we bring with us. But it's a MUCH quieter lifestyle. It's our special place. In fact we're going for the first time this coming weekend and all 3 are talking about it non-stop. You'd think we were going somewhere super exciting and new. But kids LOVE routine. They love tradition.

We also travel internationally yearly (cheaply) each spring break so we're fans of travel. But the beach house has it's own and different value for our family. It's the place of routine and family memories and a change of pace that we all appreciate.

Anonymous wrote:OP, as a general matter, you might want to consider that your children will have different interests from you and one another. You loved staying in the same spot. They might hate seeing the same thing every year. You liked TV; they might hate it and want to be outside, competing and kicking a call around. They will join clubs, activities, and make friends, and then they will reach an age, where you should listen to what is important to and interests them. It's fine if you say no to birthday parties for kids who are the children of your friends, but understand that in a short time, it's your kids' interests that will guide you, not your interests guiding them.

That said, I am totally pro-beach house and think a 5-minute drive is just fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a couple of friends who have beach houses or farm houses. I gotta say, it's great in many, many ways BUT they definitely are not as involved in sports and general school and neighborhood stuff as other families. Their kids ride or sail instead of soccer and Saturday baseball games and birthday parties. I imagine when their kids get out of elementary school they will need to cut back significantly on their weekends away just because there are so many activities that they need to be close to home for. On the plus side, they have this lovely home and property that they get to enjoy.

OP here. I understand what you are saying about these families not being as involved in things closer to home. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Every family values things differently, right?

I remember growing up I had a friend who spent summers in her family's beach house on Cape Cod. She never participated in any summer-related things closer to home, like the community center day camp I went to, and didn't seem to mind "missing out" on these things, because she had a much more interesting time at the beach house.

Also, these activities that they "need to be close to home for" as you say are all optional--birthday parties, swim team, etc. We don't have a neighborhood or community pool here, so there won't be a neighborhood swim team for our kids to join, so they won't be missing out on that since there isn't one to join anyway.

I never did team sports, Girl Scouts, organized weekend activities of any sort or any kind of community-related or neighborhood-related activities and I turned out fine. My mother would never have wanted to drive me around to these kinds of things on the weekend, that would have been too much of a bother. I never really spent much time with friends on the weekends until high school either. Not saying this is an ideal way to do things, but the idea of all these sports and activities filling up every weekend seems a bit exhausting to me.

No offense, OP, but based on this thread I think the jury is still out on this. Your initial questions were "Should we buy a beach house? What considerations should we be thinking about?" And yet you feel compelled to argue with every single person who answers the question in a way you don't like. I feel like my 8 yo is on the other end of this thread, except (i) I wouldn't put up with this nonsense from her, and (ii) your spelling is better.

You've clearly decided to buy the "beach house" (or rather, the house that happens to be in a town that has a beach). So buy it. But when your kid pitches a fit because she her best friend's birthday is in July and she has to miss it, or she wants to join a swim team, or is bored to tears in a 3 BR house and can't walk to the beach, or you can't get other families to come visit you all the time because, again, it's a 3 BR house from which you have to drive to the beach, don't say you weren't informed that any or all of those things might happen.

Anonymous wrote:If you have 260k to be able to buy your beach house as you said, then I would just put it towards renting a real beach house (as in EASY walking distance to the beach) for a few weeks each year. You could have great beach trips for the next 20 years without the commitment and pain of owning a ( non) beach house.

Anonymous wrote:Do you have kids? If so, how old? As children grow, they begin to pick and choose activities they enjoy or want to try. This can lead to travel soccer, competitive gymnastics, etc. Growing up we had a beautiful beach house. I remember it with fondness. We would walk out the back door right into the beach. Then my older brother, a very talented baseball player, joined a highly competitive team. We started to go a lot less. Then my other brother followed suit and it was baseball every single weekend and special training camps during the summer, plus I wanted to join our community swim team because all my friends were there. My parents sold the house when I was 8 years old, we barely were using it for the last two years. If you don't have kids or have babies/toddlers, then go for it. You'll use it a lot and create a lot of wonderful memories. But keep in mind that children grow up and their interests change drastically. But then again, if you are getting a good deal, you can always sell it down the road.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a couple of friends who have beach houses or farm houses. I gotta say, it's great in many, many ways BUT they definitely are not as involved in sports and general school and neighborhood stuff as other families. Their kids ride or sail instead of soccer and Saturday baseball games and birthday parties. I imagine when their kids get out of elementary school they will need to cut back significantly on their weekends away just because there are so many activities that they need to be close to home for. On the plus side, they have this lovely home and property that they get to enjoy.

OP here. I understand what you are saying about these families not being as involved in things closer to home. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Every family values things differently, right?

I remember growing up I had a friend who spent summers in her family's beach house on Cape Cod. She never participated in any summer-related things closer to home, like the community center day camp I went to, and didn't seem to mind "missing out" on these things, because she had a much more interesting time at the beach house.

Also, these activities that they "need to be close to home for" as you say are all optional--birthday parties, swim team, etc. We don't have a neighborhood or community pool here, so there won't be a neighborhood swim team for our kids to join, so they won't be missing out on that since there isn't one to join anyway.

I never did team sports, Girl Scouts, organized weekend activities of any sort or any kind of community-related or neighborhood-related activities and I turned out fine. My mother would never have wanted to drive me around to these kinds of things on the weekend, that would have been too much of a bother. I never really spent much time with friends on the weekends until high school either. Not saying this is an ideal way to do things, but the idea of all these sports and activities filling up every weekend seems a bit exhausting to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a couple of friends who have beach houses or farm houses. I gotta say, it's great in many, many ways BUT they definitely are not as involved in sports and general school and neighborhood stuff as other families. Their kids ride or sail instead of soccer and Saturday baseball games and birthday parties. I imagine when their kids get out of elementary school they will need to cut back significantly on their weekends away just because there are so many activities that they need to be close to home for. On the plus side, they have this lovely home and property that they get to enjoy.

OP here. I understand what you are saying about these families not being as involved in things closer to home. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Every family values things differently, right?

I remember growing up I had a friend who spent summers in her family's beach house on Cape Cod. She never participated in any summer-related things closer to home, like the community center day camp I went to, and didn't seem to mind "missing out" on these things, because she had a much more interesting time at the beach house.

Also, these activities that they "need to be close to home for" as you say are all optional--birthday parties, swim team, etc. We don't have a neighborhood or community pool here, so there won't be a neighborhood swim team for our kids to join, so they won't be missing out on that since there isn't one to join anyway.

I never did team sports, Girl Scouts, organized weekend activities of any sort or any kind of community-related or neighborhood-related activities and I turned out fine. My mother would never have wanted to drive me around to these kinds of things on the weekend, that would have been too much of a bother. I never really spent much time with friends on the weekends until high school either. Not saying this is an ideal way to do things, but the idea of all these sports and activities filling up every weekend seems a bit exhausting to me.

You keep talking about YOUR childhood, OP. Which sounds perfectly lovely. But don't you care at all about what your kids want?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a couple of friends who have beach houses or farm houses. I gotta say, it's great in many, many ways BUT they definitely are not as involved in sports and general school and neighborhood stuff as other families. Their kids ride or sail instead of soccer and Saturday baseball games and birthday parties. I imagine when their kids get out of elementary school they will need to cut back significantly on their weekends away just because there are so many activities that they need to be close to home for. On the plus side, they have this lovely home and property that they get to enjoy.

OP here. I understand what you are saying about these families not being as involved in things closer to home. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Every family values things differently, right?

I remember growing up I had a friend who spent summers in her family's beach house on Cape Cod. She never participated in any summer-related things closer to home, like the community center day camp I went to, and didn't seem to mind "missing out" on these things, because she had a much more interesting time at the beach house.

Also, these activities that they "need to be close to home for" as you say are all optional--birthday parties, swim team, etc. We don't have a neighborhood or community pool here, so there won't be a neighborhood swim team for our kids to join, so they won't be missing out on that since there isn't one to join anyway.

I never did team sports, Girl Scouts, organized weekend activities of any sort or any kind of community-related or neighborhood-related activities and I turned out fine. My mother would never have wanted to drive me around to these kinds of things on the weekend, that would have been too much of a bother. I never really spent much time with friends on the weekends until high school either. Not saying this is an ideal way to do things, but the idea of all these sports and activities filling up every weekend seems a bit exhausting to me.

Anonymous wrote:We have a couple of friends who have beach houses or farm houses. I gotta say, it's great in many, many ways BUT they definitely are not as involved in sports and general school and neighborhood stuff as other families. Their kids ride or sail instead of soccer and Saturday baseball games and birthday parties. I imagine when their kids get out of elementary school they will need to cut back significantly on their weekends away just because there are so many activities that they need to be close to home for. On the plus side, they have this lovely home and property that they get to enjoy.