Parenting in London - positives?

[Mariposa26]

We live on zone 2/3 border and have a 6 month old DD. We enjoy an active social life, and really loved London up until now. Currently all I can think about is getting her out of London - comparing it to my childhood where my family dropped by every day, where I played out with friends after school and knew everyone locally…things I feel she will never experience here. I feel that I want to move back to the NW, but my partner will never go for it.
Can anyone share positive stories of raising kids in London and the London lifestyle? All I hear is negatives, and it’s getting me down. She will be in nursery full time too (or possibly a 9 day fortnight)
Thank you!

Ooh free West End shows? Links please!
I can walk to lots of theatres from my home, but can't often afford tickets!

To be honest, we don't actually do many holiday activities in London, despite living in zone 1, because neither I nor DC nor DC's dad like crowds or noise.

DC's been to one Shakespeare performance, local parks, pedalos and rowing boats in park, swimming, Science Museum, cinema. But the main thing for us is being able to get out of London fast for seaside day trips (stations 10-15 minutes' walk away, straight to the south coast).

@lepikro most London adults don’t have free tube travel so you have to plan in the sense that you need to have money to pay for using the tube. I certainly can’t always just get up and go. Plus you need to eat if you are out and about. So do you buy food out? Take food? Cost of that can add up so that’s another thing you have to plan for.
I certainly can’t afford 20 theatre/events a year! Lucky you if you can do that.

How can you tell me it isn't when I live, breathe and see it? I think it clearly depends which part of London

I think a lot depends on where in London you live, if you work , and where your kids go to school. Eg my friend who lives in zone 2 works full time so therefore the time only really exists at the weekend to do all the activities mentioned here. Her kids go to private school so birthday parties etc are all over London. My DD's activities are all within a max 10 min journey from my house (outside London) and my life is therefore far less wasted on mundane stuff such as being a mum taxi. Until kids are about 11/12 - they can't be expected to get themselves to places , even in the tube. Plus I don't think all activities they want to do is walking distance away for many .

And parents with small kids - come on - do you really just get up and go with no planning (to check you have all nappies/ food/ drink/ change of clothes) for the day ? No appointments eg with a tradesperson to fit around ? Kids that need to get to different places for different activities?

The cheap travel is a big thing though. My DD attended a course in London for a week. The travel time was similar to those that lived at the end of the tube line for example, but the travel costs were vastly different (more expensive for my DD as she had to travel overground)

Would love to know how you get tickets cheaper than £30 pp for musicals - for good seats. I know on TodayTix you can sometimes get for £25 but that's not for every show

However for the purpose of OP's original concern about living in zone1/2 - you have received a lot of positives from parents who are bribing their kids up in London

I grew up in the country and couldn’t wait to get away and bought my kids up in London, we did consider moving pre school but decided to stay and so glad we did. Amongst other reasons…

• so much free stuff to do
• being bought up with so much diversity has been great for them
• schools
• Free transport (they’re teens now)
• DS goes to a brilliant range of (mostly free) clubs across London
• Great community of other friends (us and then) we met via primary school

Also as dc get older they have sports/activities/play dates/parties which means you don't have so much free time on the weekend. I miss the days where weekends were free!

I'd love cheap theatre tickets too, they are extortionate!

https://www.myboxoffice.biz/# is aseat filling service which costs £15 a year and notifies you when there are free or almost free tickets available. BUT - if you book a ticket with them you MUST turn up and you mustn't mention how you got your ticket when you are at the show

@londonmummy1966 thank you, is it very short notice?

Mine are older now but when they were at primary school a typical week in the summer holidays would include a couple of trips to local adventure playgrounds (one free and one 50p for a half day), a museum trip, a gallery trip, a show or a Prom if I could get cheap tickets, something involving a walk (often along the Thames and ending at a children's event at Southbank), a trip to a local library or a community centre with a free event on. Most were free activities the rest very very cheap, children under 11 are free on tfl and over 11 on the bus, lunch was usually a picnic either from home or picking up supermarket bits. The next week would be rinse and repeat visiting different museums galleries and libraries etc.

I suppose that the 2 basic issues to having a busy London childhood are proximity to good public transport (basically the tube as it makes life so much easier) and being prepared to look at what is on and what's around - so knowing that a trip to Saachi gallery can be followed by a splash in the street fountains and having some spare clothes if needed etc.

Usually yes but sometimes if they want an audience for a critics review night you get a bit more.

I work p/t & dc have quite a busy schedule so probably won't work for us.

I love having young kids in London.
Positives

• multiple close nurseries/schools to choose from. Daily walking rather than having to drive for drop off/ pick up
• Lots of nearby families, we have cafes, family friendly wine bars etc all a few minutes from our house and we regularly just bump into friends who happen to be there.
• Lots of local mums on maternity leave, I had a large group who all lived very local. We could meet up multiple times a day and it really made maternity leave.
• Large and small local parks, again you don't have to drive to access them.
• Great diverse food options. My 2 year old loves an indian curry and sushi!
• Much more choice for local classes, activities or days out.

Great diverse food options. My 2 year old loves an indian curry and sushi!

sorry this made me lol, diverse food options are definitely available outside of London!

What I kind of meant with my comment was really everyday normal life things that families do (cinema, shopping, swimming, scouts, playing in a park, library etc) is the same whether you live in a town or London.
People act like London is the only place with all these amazing things for children to do and all those cultural places etc etc - but it’s not. Plenty of towns (even medium size ones) have the same kind of things to do.

Yes and no though. Most people who live in London have experience of what it is like outside of London as they travel to visit family homes etc.
I regularly stay in a medium city for a week or 2 at a time and the lifestyle is not comparable.
While there were baby classes, there was firstly less choice and then my friends on maternity leave there had to drive to them which made it much less social after. I spent maternity leave walking to classes, swinging into a coffee shop on the way home and then maybe a pub for lunch all easily and with minimal planning. Weekends now are the same sort of thing.

The major difference between London and other regional cities is the proximity of things to other things and the ease of transport between them.

They really aren't. I stay in multiple other areas of the country with parents and inlaws and you cannot simply walk around the corner and access the type of food we have on our doorstep in London, nor is there the same choice for delivery.
Absolute nonsense to claim it is the same in smaller places.

Why do people always come onto threads about London and get triggered about any positives.

@Hufflepods I'm a born & raised Londoner! I'm just aware that the rest of the UK isn't a deserted wasteland!!

You are saying that diverse options don't exist outside London? Leeds, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester etc don't have food diversity?

cannot simply walk around the corner and access the type of food we have on our doorstep in London,

Loads of people outside of Z1 walk around the corner to another row of houses not a high street.

I lived in central London EC2 until my kid was 1.5years old, and up until then it was brilliant. So many baby groups, swim classes, rhyme time, music sessions, state nursery, toy library etc etc. Most were free, state-funded or heavily subsidised. Could get around easily with the buggy on public transport. Nice wide pavements too! I didn’t feel isolated at all and it really helped me adjust to motherhood as could see my friends easily (I was first to have kids, by a few years). However we moved away from London when the kid was getting too big for our little flat and I was worrying about air pollution, reality of growing up in London as a teenager etc. We now live in a lovely small city less than 1hr from London. Still lots to do for young children (free museums etc) and as the kid is getting older we are able to day trip into London in a similar amount time as it would take from the city’s suburbs, whilst still having all we need on our doorstep. Our friends who live in the London suburbs have to travel much more for things like shops, dentist, going to bank, restaurant, pool as everything more spread out in different areas - whereas we can just nip into our city centre and it’s all in one place. So I think it’s great to live in London whilst babies are tiny, but after that only as long as it’s offering you more than a smaller walkable city that’s clean, safe and friendly and still near enough to London for day trips.

@Hufflepods you seem to have had some strange non-London experiences 😂
To be honest my non-London nieces and nephews have probably had more experience of classes/youth groups/sports groups than my London child because things are actually closer to eat other and walking distance. I seem to spend half my life on public transport to get anywhere to do anything in London - yes it’s not hugely expensive, yes it’s frequent but it’s ruddy tedious.
In my family’s medium size Midlands market towns (two different ones) you can just walk to places - or many teens ride bikes to get places.
However - I wouldn’t say London is better than Non - London but I also wouldn’t say Non - London is better than London. Both have positives and negatives.
But LOL to the “can’t get sushi” out of London…..ha ha ha ha ha ! Of course you can.

Our small city is also extremely international (university city) so we actually enjoy a wide range of cultural diversity in our community. Probably more than our London suburbs friends where there a couple of ethnic minority groups in a specific suburb - rather than a broad range of families from all around the world. Also many of the international families in our community have the experience of living in other countries, practice various religions, speak multiple languages and eat food from the parents’ home country - which brings a lot of diversity of experience to our own kid’s everyday life, through these friendships. Arguably more so than kids whose friends are all long term Londoners, speak English at home, are Christian or not religious and eat similar food (the diversity solely being racial). What we are missing here is socio-economic diversity (most families being academics at the university so very highly educated). Also I found that although our London suburbs friends (gentrifying white middle class types) didn’t actually interact that much with the long term residents from ethnic minorities. Certainly not intentionally, and that’s a whole other discussion really. It’s separate communities that are living in close proximity but not genuinely mixing.

@londonmummy1966 thank you for this. Have singled up on the off chance there may be offers for musicals 🤞🏽

The thread was literally asking "what are the positives about bringing up kids in London?" With the OP worried their child would miss out on normal childhood things. It wasn't "what's better about London than literally anywhere on the planet?" Though posters have turned it into a London bashing thread. You can get up and go into central London with no planning of course you can. Bunging some nappies into a bag does not require "planning". When my kids were small I had a travel card for work so leisure travel was also free. Now I WFH and cycle more I don't but I don't count tube travel as an expense really as I don't run a car any more and I spend way less overall on travel than I used to

@longestlurkerever if you are including me in the “London bashing” then I am not bashing it at all. I was trying to say to the OP that everyday normal life is pretty much the same for children and families whether you live in London or out of London in another city or town.
Her child will have a very similar life to every other child in the UK. Her child won’t be missing out on a “normal” childhood at all.
However - Not everyone can “get up and go” into Central London at the drop of a hat. I actually need to travel into Central London today (from my Zone 3 home). The train and bus we need to get will cost (combined) approximately £6 plus my 15 year old has to pay on the train (trains aren’t free for 11-16 year olds - it’s a smaller fare but still need to pay). So basically I will need about £7 to get into Zone 1. So I have planned for that in this weeks budget. That’s planning !
I wish I could “not count tube fare as an expense” but I don’t have a magical bank account that gives me extra money.

West reservoir and leeside trust for canoeing