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City vs. Suburb
Which Is the Best Place to Raise Baby?
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Beaver says she enjoyed the city feel of Cambridge – where walking to destinations is more de rigueur than driving, and cultural activities are easier to come by, especially with just one child in tow. But once her second baby came along, the need for more space dominated other desires.
"In Billerica we have twice the space," says Beaver. The family moved from a 600-square-foot apartment to a 1,400-square-foot house. Not to mention that without "heaps of money," she and her husband, Jesse, couldn't afford to own property in the city. And, she adds, they now have "a lovely big garden to grow veggies and herbs and to play in."
Similar reasons drew Ellen R. and her husband away from the metropolis of Chicago to rural Washington State. Ellen, 36, a homemaker and part-time master's student, her husband and their 4-month-old son, Caleb, live in a small, 55-square-mile town of about 11,000 residents just north of Portland, Ore.
Ellen R. says the family's priority was space, privacy and beauty; the couple wanted land on which to build a house, to cultivate an expansive garden and to raise farm animals. "I still get chills when I drive up the private road into my driveway when I realize that I am home," she says. "I think that the opportunity to raise animals and a garden will be invaluable for my child as he grows older. I think that there are a lot of experiences to be had out here that are not available to those living in more urban areas."
Vardin says space may be limited in city living quarters, but the intimacy inherent in smaller city dwellings is a plus for families and family relations. She raised a daughter, now 24, in the heart of Manhattan and would have done it no other way. "It was a wonderful parenting experience ... and she enjoyed it, as well," Vardin says of her daughter. "I used to know all my daughter's telephone conversations because I was in the next room! And that's a good thing, I think."
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