One More Mommy

Thoughts of a mom and her husband, son, daughter, pets, friends, job (or lack thereof), house, family, trying to be more ecologically aware...

Thursday, May 04, 2006

*Gag*gag*

Among the suburban-raised folk, there is a backlash of people who don't want to deign to live in the suburbs ever again. I mean, GOD, it's the SUBURBS. I'm fortunate to not have to listen to people like that, but if you pay attention and read a lot of personal blogs, as I do, you hear their not-so-subtle undercurrent.

The suburbs are for LOSERS. I want my kids to be EXPOSED to the world and the city, and not be so NARROW-MINDED like we were growing up in the suburbs.

I can only imagine that their kids will gleefully settle with their families in the suburbs, reveling in the various aspects of suburbia that make it so appealing to the family life. It's a circle, see, a circle of life. City Snobs? Your kids will rebel by living in the suburbs. It makes me giggle! (Edited to add: I'm not talking about people who choose to live in the city, I'm talking about people who choose to live in the city and think living anywhere else is dumb and hick and GOD you're so unWORLDly.)

I was raised in suburbia, but I was raised in five different homes from ages 0-12, and then we settled in suburbia I felt least comfortable in, most likely because I was 12 and no one feels truly comfortable at 12. Then I lived and went out in the city for years, and I'm comfortable in the city. But the hassles of city living far outweighed the benefits for me, and I bought a townhouse in the 'burbs.

When we went looking for a "Family House", in which we planned to stay for the next thirty years, because dear GOD I am not moving all my crap again, we looked in the suburbs. But not too far out, where they're building shiny new houses and are actually suburbs of Rockford rather than Chicago, we wanted to be able to USE the city's offerings, because we don't want our kids to grow up in bubbles.

We ended up finding a home in a forty year old neighborhood. And a forty year old home. Now, there are lots of problems with 40 year old homes. Like when you have cedar shingles and you find out that wasps like to build nests in your house because it's SO COZY! That is a persnickety problem!

But when it comes to the neighborhood, I couldn't be happier. The neighbors are nice, even the ones that remind us of Cliff Claven and his mother. And last night, on a gorgeous spring evening, we took a walk to the community center down the street and watched some seven year old little league while Luke pushed his Jeep around. It was a complete Norman Rockwell night. That's what I'm trading in Chinese food at 3 AM for.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home