Downsides of rural living?

[Staffielove23]

Another thread in AIBU got me thinking about the downsides of rural living. Dependence of a car, farm smells and traffic.. anyone else?

lack of independence for teenagers

Always been rural, so I suppose I don't know any different.

However, for me it's power cuts, all the bloody time. Pheasants into line, off for days.

Boring for most teenagers. For lots of adults too. I grew up semi-rural and hated it, couldn’t wait to leave.

When you are older, shops, pharmacists, doctors etc not within easy reach. And what if you are no longer fit to drive?

A long way from health care or a decent hospital.
Driving everywhere
No choice for schools without boarding
Long commute
No theatre, cinema, museums
Local shops much more expensive and less choice

That said, I love it here and hate cities now.

I live in a very small rural village.

It's pretty miserable for a several months of the year. I've had enough of mud now, and there's probably at least two or three months left to go. It's everywhere you walk, drive, all over your car, etc.

Also, surprisingly noisy - they love heavy machinery, power tools and knocking stuff down around here. It's rare that a day goes by without that kind of noise.

All the farms that existed when we moved here have been taken over by horsey people. They put up wire fences absolutely everywhere, so the whole outskirts of our village have the feel of a prison yard. Perhaps that's specific to our area, though.

A lot depends on the particular people that live in the village / area. Ours is friendly and has a good community. Others around here are not like that at all.

As pp has said, it's not suitable for retirement. No buses, no facilities, even when the ambulance service was functional it would take them a long time to get here and then get you to the hospital.

This!
I was brought up in the country - no pavements, no trains, bus services few and far between - and was still being driven around by my parents until I passed my test.
My DC were brought up in the suburbs - good train and bus services, local amenities accessible on foot etc which meant they could gradually build their independence and venture further afield as they were ready.
Retired now, and within very short walking distance of shops, busses, trains etc which I'm hoping will enable me to maintain my independence for many years more.

I think it party depends on personality. People who need regular social interaction find rural life difficult and frustrating.

Where you grew up matters too. People who grew up in urban places tend to struggle with rural living. City people keep asking me 'what do you do there?', 'isn't it weird to see so many sheep and cows'? and 'where do you get coffee?'.

I now live in suburbs that are very close to a city and rural areas so I feel like I have the best of both worlds

Cost of commuting, lack of public transport, teens unable to independently get a part time job etc as car needed.

If ill health means you can't drive you are utterly stuck.

Traffic?

Oh FARM traffic 🤦‍♀️

Tractors, 60mph roads as opposed to the 20 zones in the city, you can be near a motorways and still rural.

I grew up in a small rural village that did have a great community spirit and quite a few children so I had friends but you are so limited, in lots of ways my childhood was idyllic, freedom to play in the surrounding fields and the river but as I got older I was trapped, there were no buses or trains at all.

My DM had to take me everywhere I needed to go but did so very begrudgingly so I would never ask her to take me somewhere for social reasons.
I now live in suburbia and I love that my 2 have so much independence, they can walk to shops and friends houses, get the bus in their own and get to school on their own.

A 20 mile journey taking best part of an hour to get back to a 'big' road. I hate it.

There's not that much tractor traffic, though it's worse at some times of year than others.

Potholes though. You need a sturdy car. Between the two of us in this house, we've spent around 1500 in the last year on car repairs due to the road surface. The roads don't get fixed any more.

For us there are no downsides at all: lots of public footpaths to walk the dog and keep fit, the mindfulness of hearing nothing but birdsong, open skies, keep my horse within a 5 min drive, pub in the village, we know 80% of people in the village so you never feel alone and there is a great community spirit, community fair/allotment show/fete, excellent primary school in the village.
Even the 1 downside isn't really that bad; secondary school age DD has to be driven to meet up with friends but then they are all in the same boat too so parents car pool. It means we always know where they are and we get to meet the friends + their parents so we can check they are OK lol.

I guess tourist congestion too. Rural areas vary so much. No traffic problems around here (ok get stuck behind tractors but that’s life) but biggest drawback is reliance on cats

The cold. I grew up in rural Somerset and it always seems so much colder there.

No choice of doctors’ surgery, ZERO chance of finding an NHS dentist- although that’s common everywhere now. Nothing whatsoever within walking distance, no school, shop, pub, postbox, bus stop etc. so a car is a necessity. BT are finally rolling out fibre in my location but before now we’ve been a ‘notspot’. In winter, mud on the roads everywhere.
However, summer makes up for it all, just sun, views and silence!

I live in Somerset now - it's not particularly cold here? Certainly nothing compared to further south. Wet yes, but not cold.

North, not south!

There are a lot of upsides and I love living rurally, having moved here 3 years ago but the downsides are: lack of phone signal, only one bus that goes past every 90 minutes and doesn’t run on Sundays and only one shop, pub and chippy. On New Year’s Day all of them were shut so there were no amenities at all.

Oh god so many. I grew up in a hamlet about half an hour’s drive from the nearest town. I had to walk half a mile to the bus stop; for a bus that came every 2 hours (sometimes didn’t turn up at all) which finished at 5pm, and didn’t run on Sundays. It may be the ‘good life’ for adults and very small children but it’s miserable and boring for teens, I hated it.

I’m based in a rural area of Cornwall:

• Buses are 2 miles away in nearest village
• No mains water, reliant on bore holes
• Power Cuts
• No landline or broadband in the house - rely on phone hotspot for TV/laptop
• Crap phone signal - 2 bars on EE - sometimes it drops out completely
• Only 3 Tv changes usable, the rest glitchy
• Stuck at home on icy/snowy days - lanes get very dangerous
• No takeaways delivered 😭

Lovely and peaceful though!

Oh, yes, you can forget about takeaways. You'll need to cook every night.

Car dependent. Limited amenities. No choice of restaurants/theatres/takeaway. Lack of community. Might always be considered an outsider. And cows are unbelievably noisy!