to get just a tiny bit annoyed when people move to the country and then tell me that London is crap.

[chocolatefate]

Just that really. I grew up in the countryside, but have lived in London for about twenty years, and love it. Loads of our friends are moving to the country, funnily enough often to the area where I grew up. They sometimes invite us for weekends which is obviously lovely and generous but I can't help getting a little bit annoyed when they act as though they are giving us a glimpse into an idyllic lifestyle we have mistakenly foregone and/or start slagging off London, including what a terrible place it is to bring up children. The latter happens quite often. It's also quite difficult to persuade the same people to visit us in town once they have moved out. Why is that?

YANBU. I am a Londoner by birth and have lived there (although have now moved away) for most of my life. I am reasonably happy where I am now but I do get very red mist-y when I am told how grateful I should be for escaping all the violence, dirt, crowds, stress, expense yada yada yada. I feel very protective towards London and it was a great place to be with small children. Also don?t understand the idea that London is unfriendly ? not the case at all in my experience. Also so much more to do that was free ? activities where I am are so much more expensive and scarce (and I?m now in one of the cheapest parts of the UK).

This gets my goat too. I'd never slag off their choice. Although, for most of them it wasn't a choice as they had to move to be able to afford a house big enough for a family to live in comfortably. DH and I know we're really lucky to have had enough money to buy a good sized house (or in my case, unlucky through death and inheritance).

My DCousins (who we see about once a year as they all live very rurally at the other end of the country) always behave horrified about London. I don't get it really. Day by day, our DCs lead very similar lives. We walk to primary school, so do they. The kids from our school all play out in the park after school, so do they. We walk our dogs every day in the forest, so do they. We don't live in a crumbling tower block with a pissy lift next door to a crack den on a main road. They don't live in Darling Buds of May world.

The main difference, and the only thing that does make me is clean green space. We have masses upon masses of green London on our doorstep but it's a bit, well, manky tbh. It's not clean dirt iykwim. There could be a used condom at close quarters at any time I always think!

My family is from London but all moved down to a New Town in the South as they couldn't get housing in London. So I grew up in a large town in the south which is 40 mins from London on the train but still had family living in London so visited regularly and know it well. I'm def a townie and not a country person (although there are cows and sheep within a mile lol).

I love London and would love to live there. However, it's just too expensive and DH hates it with a passion. I guess my roots are there so my heart lies there so i see it completely differently to him. He worked in the city for years and hated the commute and now works in outer London (which isn't so bad) but there is no way he will live there. Plus we live in the cheapest area in the area south of London so could never afford to even move within our county I don't think lol. If we won the lottery I would insist on an apartment there.

Stuart Lee lives in the leafiest, most MC, champagne leftie part of NE London. I expect he has a very pleasant quality of life. I too would move there in the drop of a hat were I able to afford it!

My DC, who live in a very rural location, are always terribly excited when we visit their cousins in London. It is fantastic fun for them. The reverse is also true for their cousins.

Freudianslipper where do you live.
i lived in south east London in my twenties and moved out a few years into married life. eleven years later and a mum but divorced i really feel the pull to go back. i rent from a housing association so could do a swap but having no luck finding a swap.
i was sick me London by the time i/we left and wanted a total change. yet now my child is getting older and Will fly the nest i can't imagine being in the country anymore.

Ha ha vertana, just tried to link that Stewart Lee clip, but bloody iPad wouldn't let me!
Love London, briefly thought about moving Surrey way, but had a mini panic attack when faced with the reality.

Never heard of Stewart Lee

It's town mouse and country mouse all over again, except that having been brought up in London I much prefer only going back for visits.

My heart lift as the train pulls up into St Pancras and then it lifts again as it leaves a few days later.

This thread has made me feel very sad. DH wants to leave and DS secondary school choices really aren't great so think we're off.

I know I won't be the type to lord it over Londoners though. I'll be jealous and angling for weekend invites back .

There's a champagne Leftie part of NE London? They kept it well-hidden when I was living there.

I seriously don't get the people who say there is nothing to do in the countryside - we have a theatre called the watermill that is used for previews by London shows, a cinema, and I play rugby, keep my horse, my housemate is on the lacrosse and hockey teams - and for kids there are so many groups and activities - brownies, guides, scouts, play groups, indoor and outdoor play centres. We have garden, school and village fetes, we have a michelin starred restaurant at the vineyard and loads of amazing pubs. I grew up in the countryside but I went to uni on the strand in central London and still have to go there once a week. Whilst it is nice to be able to see museums etc... the BM and science museums are amazing but they don't change that often to warrant visits more than once or twice a year! What I don't miss is how it used to take me the best part of 30 or 40 minutes to get 2.5 miles from islington to the strand.

Still each to their own and I think you should raise your kids where you are happy - happy parents = happy kids. I'm not happy in the city; others are not happy in the country.

rurlual nice when kids younger but as get older we live on edge of small town and they can walk to swimming /cinema/bowling etc and trains to london in 30 mina

I totally agree Ehn. When I lived in South London it used to take longer for me to get to the West End than it now takes me to drive to the centre of the two major cities we are nearest to.

I have easy access to national museums, theatres, other cultural activities, swimming pools, cinema, bowling, Laserquest, artificial ski slopes, shopping centres, outstanding schools, soft play centres (not now though as DD is 12), youth group, after school activities, Brownies, Guides etc.

What we don't need is parks because we have open countryside on our doorstep and we live only a few miles from one of the UK's most well known and beautiful national parks.

I have family right in the middle of London. I live in a village about 10 minutes from a large town. We visit each other.

they come here and love the peace and space, and all the country stuff. But they wouldn't live here - too little going on.
I go there and love all that London has to offer. But I wouldn't live there now - too noisy and too cramped.

so we each get a holiday in the other life and everyone is happy. Neither place is 'crap' and bringing up kids in either place is fine.

War zones are crap. Deserts are crap. People lucky enough to live in the UK need to stop whining!

Well I slagged off London when I lived there and now I've moved to the country, I still slag it off :D

Its great for some people but just not for me, I hated it and am much happier in the country!

'What baffles me is that it's socially acceptable to slag off London to londoners but not for Londoners to criticise others home towns...'

Exactly well, admittedly I do criticise others' home towns

London is just a free for all, whether that's for people to enjoy it, or for people to slag it off!

Well, I went to the country this weekend. It was nice! But London is nice too! I would just say somebody up the thread said something about not visiting friends in London because of the traffic .... but surely, that has to work in precisely the same way in the other direction? And somebody else said something about village fetes! God, you are SO right. We went to a village fete this weekend. I have DONE village fetes, spent my whole childhood doing the fete thing, no need to ever knock another coconut off a shy and make small talk with people ever again. That's all. But we had a nice weekend, and hardly anyone slagged off London. Result.

London is a series of villages, London is NOT Oxford street.
It really annoys me when people say they hate London and they live within a 30 mile radius and they have only ever been to the busiest places.
Its a fabulous wonderful city, sadly i cannot afford to live there but I do like coming home to my garden too.

fragolino, exactly, exactly, exactly. People making a beeline for Leicester Squalor Square, Covent Garden, Oxford St on a Saturday , and then complaining about how busy/expensive it is and how bad the restaurants are. What do they expect???

Villages in London :)

Having a lol to that one - never seen a village in London