How come everyone on MN is 'rural'?

[managedmis]

I'm not rural

Im not rural, wish I was

I live in a small village about half a mile from the edge of a National Park. There is a bus that goes through once a week and the primary school has less than 40 pupils in total. We don't have a pub or a shop, though the next village which is only 3 or 4 miles away does have a post office/small shop. Am I allowed to call that rural?
And I currently can't drive because of a medical condition that I didn't have when we moved here. It is highly inconvenient, and had I been in this situation when we moved here then we probably would have picked a different location. But we don't want to sell our house and uproot our children now, particularly as there is a chance that with time my condition will be well enough controlled that I will be able to drive again. So I suppose I do willingly live in the middle of nowhere without being able to drive but I didn't actually plan it. I am sure there are lots of reasons why people live in situations that seem unreasonable or unbelievable to others. Life doesn't always pan out the way you expect.

Here's my test. If you wanted to go out for lunch on a Sunday, is there somewhere local you could go to after 2pm, or is there nowhere that does it / that's when they stop serving?

If the latter, where you live is 'rural'.

I’m in suburban Australia. It is just like Ramsey Street. . Husband isn’t high up or in the know. I do have a sensible, but not sporty teenager who drives a ute (4x4). I have lived rurally in Ireland and couldn’t escape quick enough, I hotfooted it to a tiny expensive London flat as soon as I got the chance! And I don’t drive, bloody hate driving!

I wouldn't say I'm rural. I live in a village in a beautiful university city beginning with O. Lots of fields but you go the other direction into the town centre and it's manic (usually).

We are not rural we are on the outskirts of a city , maybe people have different opinions of rural 😕 , but I do know your a massive cunt of you dare to have a second home 😂😂😂, and every MIL is a bitch .. Only on mn x

My husband has an important job but does everything he can not to work long hours 😂😂

I'm not sure that test really works ScouseQueen
A lot of rural places are also popular with tourists and the hospitality industry may well be more developed than just about anything else. There are pubs around here that are really isolated but where you could definitely get a meal at any time on a Sunday. Or at least you could eat there any day from Easter to the end of October. Outside of the holiday season a lot of places reduce their opening hours but it tends to be weekdays that are most affected. You would struggle to find anywhere open for lunch at all around here on say, a Wednesday in January but even in the midddle of winter people come for weekend breaks so at least some of the pubs and restaurants serve all day on Sat and Sun.

@HeretoThereandBackAgain Is your name Ruth Langmore and have your Uncles picked up two Bobcats? Also, do you live in the Ozarks?

I think you just notice the posters who are very different to you. I don't know any SAHMs so I feel like the site is full of them but others seem to feel it's full of women with high flying careers.

I do find it bizarre when there are posters who live rurally but don't drive - why?!

I do. In a hamlet 9 miles from anywhere and 15 miles from school or town. Which isn't really a town, it just has school, gp and a supermarket. 26 miles from a proper town with shops. Surrounded by farmland and rspb reserve.

I am suburban and have no public transport. You don’t need to be rude to need to drive.

I'm not rural, edge of South East London and jolly nice too. I have woods and ponds down the road so that is 'rural-ish' I suppose, there's a nice village with cafes and restaurants, Sainsbury's and Co-op, post office and chemists - when they are all open again - plenty of buses and a railway station or two nearby.

I live in a tiny town in an very rural county, it takes ages to get anywhere.

Well, I'm not so you're wrong love

Poster on MN are either very rural, or live in a flat in central London with neighbours who have mental health problems.

They also either survive on £15K pa or have a household income of £120K (although things can be tough on that income if you live on central London)

Teenagers are either predicted all 8s and 9s at GCSE and are very sensible, cook all their own meals from scratch and play a sport at county level or are violent and rude.

I seem to be the only poster who lives in suburbia with average DC and an average income.

I have lived very rurally in the past (barn conversion in a hamlet with 12 houses and no shop/pub, only accessible via mud track), have lived centrally in major cities (Bristol, London, Paris, Milan and Madrid), and now live in what I’d call ‘the sticks’. Semi rural I guess... a village about 20 miles from the nearest town, but pretty close to a motorway junction. Plenty of countryside around us.
I guess people who live rurally haven’t had much cause to talk about it in the past, but it has become a bit more relevant recently in discussions around going for walks etc. Unless you mean you don’t believe people?

Def not all rural. You get an awful lot of baffled posters who don't understand when you can't solve problems with childminders or after school clubs (neither thing are available here), uber and takeaways (nowhere delivers here, there's an old fashioned taxi place in a town 10 miles away but it's ££ and has to be booked in advance), transport (infrequent buses which stop at 6pm), teaching your child to swim (20 miles to a swimming pool) and so on.

I live on a farm in west wales..as rural as it gets

It depends how uou describe rural. Rural for some is living on the edge of a city. Near a few fields. I live in a small hamlet the middle of nowhere. Theres a small town with not much in it about 10 miles away. Everything shuts here on a sunday. My nearest city, hospital, mcdonalds, pizza hut, shopping centre ect are a 2.5 hour drive away.

According to Wikipedia I live in the heart of The North Wessex Downs in an area of outstanding natural beauty . To paraphrase John Cleese , trees trees trees and more fucking trees .

I live in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. Our nearest cinema is 45 minutes away, as is our nearest McDonald's

The nearest city is two hours drive away too. We have a train service (that doesn't run on Sundays), no taxis (unless you book them several days in advance) and no bus service (unless you book a private service to take you somewhere as a group of at least 15 people.)

There's no Uber, no Starbucks, no Costa, no chain restaurants. One of our local garages is one of those places where they come out and do it all for you! And lots of places still don't take card.

I'm also five minutes from the beach and ten minutes from about five others. Twenty minutes drive to the National Park too. It's fantastic

Oh and everything shuts on a Sunday and at lunchtime on a Wednesday 😂

Up thread Milton Keynes was described as "technically rural". If a town with a population of circa 230,000 and the major regional shopping and commercial hub is your description of rural, then yes, most people on Mumsnet will live in a rural area.

What is "rural"?

Can someone explain?