Town Mouse, Country Mouse
Beautiful Brisbane
Which kind of mum are you? A town mouse or a country mouse?
I’m a town mouse. My husband’s job in the technology sector means we will probably always be located close to a major centre. There are a lot of advantages to raising kids in the city. We only need to drive 5 minutes in any direction to be at a shopping centre, local library, swimming pool, playground, video store, doctor’s surgery, or any number of fast food venues. There are two C&K kindergartens and four schools nearby, and the private hospital where both of my children were born is 12 minutes away. My kids love looking for cranes working on city buildings, and regularly visit Brisbane’s art galleries and museums. We have lots of playdates with friends, and we have family close by too. Living in the city isn’t perfect though. Houses are expensive, business dads often work long hourse, and there is a lot of pressure on full time mothers to return to their pre-mum careers. There is a real danger of hyper-scheduling kids because so many activities are available, and it has to be said that you can have neighbours all around you and still be lonely.
A close friend of mine made a tree change last year and moved from Brisbane to rural NSW. Although she shares with me the struggles she has a country-mouse with two little ones at home, I have to admit that I sometimes envy her simpler life.
What kind of mum are you? Town mouse or country mouse? And what is the best and worst thing about where you live? Share your joys and frustrations about where you are raising your kids in the comments below.
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I’ll be on ABC radio this evening (around 6:45pm AEST) with James O’Loghlin talking about life as a full time city mum. You can listen to it streaming live here.
country mouse here… we moved out here to ten acres of weeds just outside of a small town in north central Vic about four years ago. We used to live in tiny house in the inner west of Melbourne so this was a BIG change. We are lucky in that we are only 45 minutes from the centre of Melbourne by freeway and closeish to suburban areas, shops etc but far enough out to still be very much country. We love it here but there is good and bad to all things and there is good and bad to this too!
City mouse at the moment. Give it a few years and I hope to be a remote mouse again, I dont know that I could be a rural mouse though. I still need a shop to go to and a few other activities. I must admit having two little ones I need to be close to family, hospitals etc.
All we can do is make the most of what surrounds us at the time, we never know where we will be from one year to the next. If we are lucky enough we have friends all over so we can experience a bit of it all.
I’ve lived rural as a child, semi-rural as a teen, suburban as an adult and quite possibly by the time I get to retirement age I might be living in the CBD! LOL.
As I mentioned in Twitter, we kind of have to live in suburbia at the moment as it is close to otherwise sorely-lacking facilities and programs for our autistic son (just one example: special small classes within mainstream schools – such as the class Jay attends – are virtually non-existent in rural areas)
That said, I remember with a LOT of fondness the years we spent on a hobby farm as a kid. We had cows, our own full size green houses, chickens, a dam to catch yabbies in, and we could walk for miles and build as many cubbies (forts for the Americans, LOL) as we liked. Almost 20 years later I could tell you about a half a dozen secret little enclaves I played in, the rocky outcrop up the hill that had a freakish arrangement not unlike a table and chairs (many a picnic was held there), the creek we paddles in, the willow tree I claimed as my own and whose tendrils I weaved into baskets. See, I’m all nostalgic now, LOL.
A country upbringing for a child really is an awesome experience, and one I’d probably have tried to replicate for our own kids if it wasn’t for Jay’s issues and the fact that Talented Hubby’s job is 100% contingent on where his organization has the jobs. I mean, we *could* put in for a transfer (forgetting Jay’s needs for a sec) but then things start getting very tricky re work and promotion opportunities…for example, there are certain areas within his organization that don’t operate out of suburbia, or at least not anything like on the level he’s currently involved in. So, yeah, tricky.
I do encourage whoever has the means and the inclination to do so, to try some time in the country while the kids are young. The sense of community in small country towns is utterly different to the cursory ‘hi’ you get at the supermarket in the city, you know? Some might find the ‘everybody knows everybody’ thing tiresome after a spell but honestly, country folk rally around their fallen like nothing I’ve EVER seen before…tends not to happen that way in the city
I was a town mouse but late last year we made the move to rural NSW. It has been a great move for us. It meant I didn’t have to go back to work and my husband gets to spend a lot more time with our children. Although I am still getting used to not having so many conveniences just a step away and there’s not as much happening in the arts and culture arenas. Our children are really happy here so that has made it a right decision for our family. And it’s a lot closer to my family which is nice.
I probably have the best of both worlds – our main home on edge of a large town. Walking distance if great schools. Town has cinema, pool, arts centre, close to capital.
Then up at our holiday cottage – total change of tempo. No schedules, no pressure. Though in N Ireland never possible to be too far away from anyone – nearest shop 2 miles, nearest pub 1 mile! Major town and large supermakets 11 miles. Nearest traffic light – 6 miles!!!
I’m a country mouse and I love where I live I can see the ocean from my house, we go to the beach all the time and there’s rainforest all around, if we want to we can be at a tropical coral island in just thirty minutes.
I would love a larger library (and am working to help make this happen!) and would love to be able to give my children more opportunities to see live theatre but really love our choice to live where we do.
Nice article Catherine!
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. It’s so lovely to hear the great things about where you have chosen to raise your kids. I don’t think I won the debate for city mums on air because I know there are so many wonderful things about raising kids in the country!
I’ve often fantasized about running away to join the circus…ehm I mean to live in the country. I kind of like the idea of cows, not sure I’d like to own one–maybe if they came in miniature and Erin could ride it to school.
I’m a suburb mouse. 20 minutes to a big city by car, 10 minutes or less to open space. Great schools! I love that we occasionally see cows, wild turkeys, and deer (tho’ hubby is not happy to find them in the yard). We love it here, and the only downside is the cost of living is high. Thank God for a husband who loves his work.
[...] grasp on her wool straight from the sheep’s back all day. I have shared a lot lately about raising city kids, and this was a chance for me to give my kids a little bit of [...]
I’m a country mouse – but I like to visit my cousins in town occasionally
I’ve given you an award Cath, pop into my blog at http://annettepiperjewellery.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-housekeeping.html to collect !
Cheers
Annette