Pros and cons of living in the countryside

15 minute drive isn’t much. We live in a village & are about that far from the nearest town. Yes, we ferry the teens around a lot, but living out of town meant we can afford a 5-bed detached house with a big garden which we all love. They do so many varied sports and activities all over the place, that even if we lived in town we’d need to get the car out for some of them anyway.

In our last house in town they hated waiting for buses, so they vastly prefer the mum & dad taxi service! We’ve happy to provide this - we knew full well when we moved here there’d be more driving, and it’s worth it for the life we’re able to live here.

Tbh if you're only 15 mins from a decent sized town I don't think there are many down sides, that's a short drive!

I suppose from my experience is have these.

Pros: it's beautiful, there's space, I can keep ducks and chickens and bees, and plenty of space for my dog. Fewer irritating people. There's something nice about feeling like you're living in time with the seasons.

Cons: no take ways in a reasonable distance, no popping to the shop if you've forgotten something, stress about getting into preferred schools and long days for dc travelling to school, people in small communities will help you in an emergency but they would really embrace you as one of the community for quite a few years because they don't expect you to stay. Getting snowed in. Power outages. Not being able to get tradesmen who are willing to come to your area.

Sorry that’s just not true. My teens certainly aren’t “online all the time” they are socialising with their friends and at their Saturday jobs. I would hate it if they lived somewhere where they just sat online all day at the weekend for 8 months of the year.

But your teen years are not the teen years now. I’d have hated country living as a teen but now all the kids are online. Mine game until the wee hours with friends. That’s pretty much what they want to do with their mates.
Mine love country living. Quad biking. Shoot. Archery. They swim in the river.

I’ve lived in both city and country.

Country pros- more wildlife, less people, more space, fresh air.
City pros- Everything is fairly nearby, more going on, easier transport links.

Country cons- Mud, lots and lots of mud, more chance of getting mice in your house, agriculture (oil seed field pollen, spraying, harvesting dust, general shit smells), shoots, shooting and wankers with guns, popping out for milk/bogroll becomes more of an expedition, village politics, power cuts, things not being on the mains (gas, sewerage).
City cons- People, traffic, general dystopian grimness, smaller houses for more money, more crime, parking, noise. Did I mention people?

Tbh, I’d move back to the Sticks in a heartbeat.

I would say do your due diligence and check for any planning applications nearby and check the local planning departments draft local plan. The government are putting huge pressure on councils to build more and more houses and even where planning is refused for good reason such as flood risk or lack of water/sewerage infrastructure, it's being overturned on appeal. In the 8 years since we moved to the (what was lovely) countryside there has been a huge increase in new build estates, 3 in the lane we live on and another being pushed through for a further 750 (ffs) houses less than a quarter of a mile away. Its been even worse in the nearest town where they've built five new estates in the last 3 years alone. Developers are falling over themselves to make a fast buck from building cheap poor quality houses, and small scale farmers unable to make a decent living are selling them the land.

If they did, I wonder how many of them would turn up on time, or even turn up at all 🤣.

The farmers offered, didn't even need to ask 😊We have land we let other people use too. FFS some people are so uptight. It's a field 🤣

On the teenagers and hobbies thing. I swim for a club in the neighbouring city, none of these city dwelling kids are getting themselves to and from swim practices independently...

Definitely live on the edge of a small town rather than rural with teenagers. Teens seem to ‘need’ to be with their friends at every opportunity, shopping, cinema, parties, sports, bowling, restaurants, pubs as they get older, just hanging out with friends. It will really limit things for them if they can’t easily access these things independently.

I think it’s a lovely idea, but too rural not great for teens. We are only 30 min walk from town centre but still a 5 minute walk from lovely countryside. And we still have a good community feel. Our kids loved growing up here.

I think a huge amount of the potential cons depend on your child. I grew up in the countryside and loved it (30 minutes by car to the nearest town) but I was very lucky and had a friend just down the road and our parents took it in turns to drive us to see other friends or into town. I'm quite an introvert and love my own space so it never massively bothered me but you do miss out on quite a lot of you're a social type. You can't just go into town with your friends without a lot of hassle, you can't go and sit in a cafe or meet them without prior arrangement etc. if I'm completely honest it probably did mean that I was not as independent as I could have been when I left home. On the other hand that could absolutely be seen as a pro as I never had the pressure to go and hang out in some dodgy park or outside someone's house either!

Talk it through carefully and don't be under any illusions that the countryside is some sort of idyllic place where nothing goes wrong and you will be in a good place to see if it works for your family.

It's interesting because I live 3-4 minutes down a single track lane, 5 minutes from a local village with no amenities, 10 minutes from a larger village with doctors, shop etc, and 15 minutes from two large towns in opposite directions with lots of amenities, even a minor injuries unit.
I'm also only 10 minutes away from a major motorway.

If you looked for my house on Google maps I am in the middle of nowhere, but not really.

So yes there is a difference. I think many can confuse rural with remote, the latter of which has far more cons and overlaps with alot of what people are saying on here.

Many of the cons I don't experience. I have great internet, deliveries etc for example.

Precisely
Also rural communities/ businesses are not there for people to cosplay Enid bloody Blyton !

I absolutely agree with this.
Some country locations do have buses available.
You could look at locations eg in a village which have a regular bus service.
Villages do exist with train stations, depending which part of the country you live in.
Also living in a village with amenities is different from living in a very isolated place.
The countryside is not homegenous.

Farmers have public liability insurance and would feel very awkward if you asked if your kids could play in the fields.

This
Im a bit 🤔 at people who call 15 minutes into town rural.

My DP lived truly rurally and its fine if you hate people and never want to go anywhere.

Country roads are horribly dangerous and like the whacky races with everyone barrelling along.
They had to drive everywhere, even to get a pint of milk as no pavements, cycling or walking,ok if you have a death wish.
As they got older it became a performance of " getting the car out" and they just sat in the house.
Absolutely everything is twice the effort and services are very poor
Fuel costs and availability
Shopping
GP
Dentist
Hairdresser
Getting to school
Work
No buses
Unable to walk/cycle anywhere

I live as @WonkyConk on the edge of a large village with great amenities
I walk, cycle to work on a dedicated cycle path, within a minutes walk Im out in the countryside but the opposite direction is a nice village with decents shops, dentist etc

Yes but the pros aren't just for your child are they? They're not the only person in the family.
Maybe the parents want nice space to be outside?

They can speak to their friends online. We can drive them to the nearest bus stop or to their friends. It's really not a big deal.

The pros are easy, I’ll just do cons - I’m five years into living in a beautiful part of the world and I want to go back to town life - not just for these reasons mind!

Cons
The mud is next level
I drive my now teens around for HOURS! (they use the infrequent bus too)
No food deliveries or taxis come to our house - which I actually don’t mind but it’s annoying for some visitors
Regular power cuts are annoying for working from home
The road gets blocked with escaped cattle/trees frequently fall and block the road and the potholes are Olympic sized
The council tax cost is unbelievable
No gas connection
We have a stream which is so pretty but attracts so many mosquitos I’m put off sitting by it
People speed down our country lane and crash
The sound of all the beautiful wildlife being shot most weekends makes me really sad and I had not considered this. I live literally in a woodland and rarely see British wildlife even at night or early mornings, except some really amazing birds. Everything you’d expect to see frequently is killed and so becomes a rare lovely sighting.

@ChocolateHobbita pretty significant “few” years….a a bit ironic the pros of the countryside include the ability to have nice space to be outside, but teens are more reliant to speak online to talk with their friends.

I grew up rurally, I am jealous of the teenage years my children are experiencing!

I don't know why people are banging on about the teen independence thing.

A) It's only for a few years not a lifetime.
B) Teens can easily talk to their friends online. They're not completely isolated.
C) if there's two of you, then you just take it in turns driving them around.

When I was a kid I lived next door to a local train and bus station yet it was still often quicker and more convenient for my dad to take me places. Yes living rurally you have no other choice, but don't think just because you live next to a bus stop, you won't be a taxi anyway. My workplace as a teen was a 20 minute drive away yet by public transport I had to get two or three different buses to get there.

Married to a farmer, so live in countryside. DD13 will cycle to her best friends house, and I'll often drive her to the village to hang around with her mates, unless you are properly in the middle of nowhere it's fine.

I used to live in a very rural area , once the beautiful summer days arrive and you decide to have a barbecue these are always the days when the local farmers spread slurry !!

Yes we can’t be blanket about all teens. The ones that appreciate nature and throw themselves into the Young Farmers etc may love country living. Sadly neither of my teens are like that and they are definitely town not country mice!

I do love big skies - mentioned by a PP - very soothing and lifting at the same time. Also, apparently, we are calmed by looking at a far horizon - which I can understand too - though with a higher than a house flat view I’m not crammed in over much that way. My last house French windows looked onto a fence then fully rendered wall - I found it depressing in Covid and had a hedge out in instead - there’s definitely a lot of good in having space, nature, skies all around.

Be great to have 2 places (without the work of it!) but I think it’s just what works best for you and some of it is a compromise.
I need the energy of a city, though live on a canal so am fortunate there. But I love holidays in small green villages with water - I love the skies up near the lakes - but they’re for holidays or days out. Equally, some in villages may do city breaks and visits.

I hope you find the best fit for you OP.

Time wise, I was closer to a hospital with an A&E when i lived in a village than where I am now in a town. There are lots of towns and city suburbs that are going to be much further than 10 minutes from a hospital with an A&E department.