To ask you what the area you live in is actually like?

Ironically there is another post on MN where someone is complaining about her lovely suburb and wishing it was edgier.

I live in a nice suburb on the edge of the city. Great schools, quick ride into the city but close to lots of parks and walks.

Even the way you type back raise my eye brow.

We used to live outer west London, and it was awful, so I feel your pain. We usedto go to the park and get racist abuse, kids pushing mine, general rudeness, boy racers etc

We moved 20 miles out to South Bucks village and we love it. It's quite a large village - 2 good primaries, 4 pubs, sainsburys local, Costa and a variety of independent shops, but still retains a village feel. Only 5 mins from M40, but feels very rural.

Far north coast (Scottish Highlands). A fabulous place to bring up children and now grandchild. I could not think of living anywhere else in the UK now (moved up here 20 years ago from further south (Scotland)). My son was 7 and my daughter 13.

Crime is very low, but our infrastructure and services are neglected, but to be honest, the safety outweighs all of it.

Suburb of a fairly large city. We live in a new build development that has natural boundaries and fairly quiet traffic wise with a shop a cafe and some small parks, cycle paths and open grassy areas where they can play football. Kids round here play out a lot so I do let my 8 year old go out within the vicinity of our house. He has to cross one quiet road. My 12 year old goes everywhere within the development and walks to a nearby retail park. We border an area that isn’t so “nice” and we do get some low level crime and anti social behaviour - sometimes from local kids - but it doesn’t feel unsafe for kids playing out in the day. We’ve got quite a vigilant community so ASB is reported and dealt with pretty well. They don’t have as much freedom as I did but I also grew up on a suburban housing estate and it has a similar vibe. We used to live in a more urban area and kids didn’t play out much because the roads were too busy and there were no open spaces.

We live in a very rural spot. Only 5 houses down a country lane surrounded by fields and sheep. My kids go out walking round the countryside or hang out in the garden. Their friends come round all the time. It’s great!

I was thinking that, it's wonderful to see. Maybe we should send this thread to the media - and to Elon Musk!

I live in zone 3 leafy part of SW London. I lived in a different part of the same area when my kids were young and the kids in the playground were fine, though I think by 8/9 they’d outgrown the park and it was more taking them out to ride bikes/scooters and they did more organised sport. Where I live now there’s a primary school on my street and two more within walking distance so loads of kids about. Halloween is just like that scene in ET - literally dozens and dozens of kids running around the streets with parents trailing behind - I get around 150-200 kids at the door! All very jolly. I’d be totally happy bringing up my kids here.

Central belt of Scotland, quite near Edinburgh. It’s mostly good, lots of countryside, amenities and good transport links. The schools are ok but with a fair bit of low level disorder. There have been some recent issues with anti social behaviour in the town centre, but still wouldn’t have an issue with DD (12) walking to meet her friends etc.
I would like to live slightly further south in East Lothian as there is probably more cultural life there, but we would be further away from Edinburgh.

You would hope so!

Lovely commuter town in the south east with lots of surrounding countryside. I've never seen anything like you describe. I've never heard a child, or in fact a teen, swear when out and about that I can recall. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure teens here swear, but they're not hanging around on street corners effing and blinding.

It's the sort of place where the public realm is lovely because people volunteer to plant flowers, pick up litter and to make it a lovely place to live. The council puts on really good free entertainment for kids in the holidays. We are very lucky.

Id have thought it's because people name change aftwr a couple of threads! If you aren't name changing regularly of course you wouldn't post surely

Yorkshire coast seaside…. Sadly getting rougher and rougher by the day.

It's actually really nice to hear all the regional pride coming out! Maybe the UK isn't so bad afterall

I can see why you are unhappy.

I can’t even imagine encountering that where I live. I know teenagers swear, and I do myself. Don’t even worry if it’s in front of my older (18,16 yr old teens).

But kids that age…Also it’s how you swear - if I drop a baked bean tin on my toe and say FFS, I would think normal. But not swearing at people or being aggressive.

Anyway, Worcester is nice . Decent sized city so not a commuter town and local jobs. Easy access to Birmingham (which I don’t like) for jobs also Gloucester.

It’s totally middle of the road - not too posh or too run down, not to rich or deprived, small city but very rural nearby. Decent schools, but not outstanding.

Hampshire semi rural here - coast, south downs and new forest nearby and play parks skate parks tennis club gym in walking distance. Schools are ok. Rough areas in the cities but apart from that it's just very nice

Amazes me that posters are willing to give that info!

South Ribble District in Lancashire was rated as the best place to grow up in
There’s a mixture of towns and villages - we live in one of the villages - I hope to never have to move elsewhere

In the southwest (Somerset), a mile up a single track lane, surrounded by nothing but fields, green living landscapes, birds, insects, animals, the sights, sounds and smells of agriculture, looking out onto the Quantock Hills, not a sign of humanity, apart from a few farm buildings and a view of the church spire in the village a mile away. No traffic apart from farm vehicles, no light pollution at night - beautiful views of the night sky - and my soul sings and my heart lifts every single time I turn off the main road onto the lane leading to my cottage, which then wraps its arms around me, hugs me and makes me feel welcome every time I walk through the door! Quiet, safe and as far away as I can get from suburbia, urbanisation, traffic, noise, pollution and 'busyness'

Village in South Bucks. It's very safe, and very friendly with a fabulous community and loads of events. There are masses of enormous playgrounds with separate areas for big and little (and grownups who fancy a go on the zipline when nobody's looking!), plus loads of clubs and activities. There's a huge focus on education and extracurriculars, and as it's an AONB it's very outdoorsy, so children spend a lot of time outside. But it's only 30 minutes from Marylebone, and there are some really nice market towns nearby with a quite absurd number of coffee shops, salons, boutiques etc. I absolutely love it here, and wouldn't live anywhere else.

Central Scotland, small town. Kids walked to school solo since about age 8/9, safe to wander round day or night, minimal crime. Good transport with buses, train station and main roads. Reasonable local shops, great shopping in city 4 miles away, good local independent cinema/theatre. Great schools both secondary and primary, great early years provision. Amazing quality of greenspace from the door, even better if you drive 10-30 mins into national park.
It's a popular and relatively expensive place to live - but if it was south of the border it would be twice the price.