‘Slower pace of life’

[Countrylife45]

Does anyone else find the idea of the ‘slower pace of life’ outside London talked about in programmes such as Escape to the Country a bit patronising?

Watching it for the first time in ages (I’m on maternity leave but don’t end up watching much tv!) and it’s the usual couple from London wanting to move to the countryside and open a B&B or something. Talking about the ‘slower pace of life’ when the places they’re looking aren’t too far from cities like Bristol, Worcester and Gloucester.

It just seems to be a bit of a stereotype that living outside London is somehow ‘slower’ and more wholesome. It’s as if anyone outside London couldn’t possibly have a busy social life, high flying career etc. I’ve lived in London for a period of my life and now live in a small town. My life is just as busy, if not more. In fact, in my experience a lot of people end up living an even faster paced life with long commutes etc. High flying careers where they work in London but live rurally and have to juggle both (which is what I was doing for a while).

Not sure where I’m going with this but it’s just reminded me of people’s attitudes when I lived and worked in London, as if anywhere else is provincial and backwards.

Nothing against the couple on the programme today, I’m sure compared to their current life, upping sticks and opening a B&B is a real change but Escape to the Country in particular seems to show this patronising, outdated view of what it means to live outside of a big city.

I always take it to mean environmental not personal. Getting away from somewhere very busy where there's lots of coming and going from crowds of people and you may have to rush a bit because they'll be loads of other people trying to do whatever you're doing the minute you've finished kind of thing? So not personally slow paced necessarily but a slower paced environment.

I think the PP must be right and they mean it literally in terms of environmental rather than personally.

Anyone thinking that starting up and then running your own business (a B&B no less) is going to be a “slower pace of life” is in for a rude awakening.

I find I'm more busy now I've moved somewhere "slower' as I don't spend hours on public transport

But I would still describe it as a slower pace of life. London can often just be very overstimulating. It feels like you are doing a lot when actually you are doing nothing at all, lots of people rushing about

Yes. I live on the border of Wiltshire/Somerset which is so often on these shows but we both still have to go to work/the supermarket and our child still needs entertaining. We might not be dashing off to the NHM or Science Museum of a weekend but most people round here have membership to Longleat, National Trust, kids in rugby/football/swimming/Scouts. If anything there's more time spent driving about!

I grew up in London and now live in a rural area. Obviously there are exceptions, but overall I'd say it's definitely true.

I've never lived somewhere it would be so normal to have a long chat with the postman, for example.

I don't think it's condescending or patronising. I see it more as a criticism of people in the big city rushing around and not caring who they have to push out of their way.

There's a difference between living and working rurally, and living rurally but commuting into the city and still spending most of your week there.

We do the former and it's definitely a much more relaxed way of life. It's quieter, not as overstimulating and nowhere near as stressful.

The countryside is a slower pace of life compared to cities though. There isn't nightlife apart from the local pub. There's nothing to do and you have to drive everywhere.

A faster pace of life doesn't equal a longer commute or having to spend more time driving to places. A faster pace of life means a buzzy atmosphere, lots going on, plenty of stimulation, bouncing easily from one place to another, being spontaneous, meeting new people constantly.

I grew up in a village and now live in London.

It was a WAYYYYYY slower pace of life. It's crazy how different it was/is

There's plenty of stimulation in the countryside. And you can meet new people -with the added advantage of having time to actually talk to them.

You're taking a very i-d view of "stimulation" and "something to do".

I've lived all over the country, except the NE so far, and I've found everywhere outside of London is a slower pace. It's just a fact. It's not about your life being busy, mine is too, but the general atmosphere of other cities is not the same as London. Personally I prefer it and find London far too busy when I have to go home now, I don't find 'slower paced' to be an insult at all

I moved from Dublin to Belfast and often make similar comments.

My one hour door-to-door commute is seen as quite long rather than very short.

I always get a seat on the train.

Working hours are typically shorter.

Everything is just that little bit easier, closer, less hectic.

I still have a good job, decent salary, busy schedule.

I imagine the contrast between London and other places in GB is similar.

I live in this area and the pace of life is slower. It feels less like an endless meat grinder of tube + bus + brisk walk to work and the same backwards when you arrive home exhausted at 8pm. We finish work at 4, head into town for a couple of cocktails midweek and back home at 8 for dinner and unwind before work the next day. Weekends are long walks in nature which is a 15-minute drive away and not 2h to the edge of London in mostly stationary traffic. There is just somehow more time on either side of a busy life.

How funny, I haven't watched this in years but happened to be home early and it was on - I thought exactly the same thing about the slower pace of life comment.

I've moved from city to country and I agree that it is a slower pace of life. Not that individual people are any less busy but more the pace that life moves around you. Living in the city it was constant traffic, rush, noise, queues, people. In the country you can hear yourself think without having to worry about navigating other people as much. I don't think it's intended to be patronising.

My DD and her DP are only in their late 20s but have recently moved to Edinburgh for a change in the pace of their lives. DD can walk to work now instead of a long tube journey and they have the sea and hills on their doorstep to get into nature which they love. They also have all the amenities of a fairly decent sized city. They are very glad to slow down the pace of life. There isn't anything patronising about that concept at all

I agree OP. Surely how slow or fast paced your life is will depend on your lifestyle and how much stuff you are trying to fit into it. I'd expect running a BnB to be quite a "fast paced" and busy job unless you can afford to outsource much of the running.

I live in a village and would say it is a slower pace of life than when I lived and worked in London, but I think while things moved quickly in London, you don't get more done because half of the rushing around is just getting from A to B. I can now walk from one side of my village to the other in about 20 minutes. I can walk my kids to school in 5. My friends are mostly within a 15 minute driving radius, whereas previously I had to get cross London by tube/bus to see anyone I knew. There are 4 big towns within 15 minute drive of me and I can put things straight in the car rather than having to carry heavy bags home on the bus. I work from home. I've got rid of about 12 hours a week of commuting, so that does give me more time to do things or to take things slower.

I don't think I could live in London again, but there are lots of other cities where you have the pace (work, entertainment, restaurants etc) of London on a smaller scale (eg. Cambridge, Lincoln, Norwich, Worcester, Bristol, Bath) and plenty of the benefits of the countryside available too.

That said, I don't think I would find running a B&B all that relaxing wherever it was!

There are hardly ever Londoners on Escape to the Country. It’s usually June & Bob with a big house in a Midlands suburb who want to buy a cottage in the arse end of nowhere with an outbuilding for Bob’s ‘hobbies..

YABU..

Your pace of life is what you make it. I had a much slower pace of life in London as I could please myself. I lived locally to work and didn't have kids. Currently living just outside a town where I am 400 metres from woods and 800 from fields, I have a job which involves a lot of driving and 2 kids in sports, and orchestra, which they love so I drive them. I figure it isn't for ever!

It is a bit patronising. Although my life is quite 'slow' by Escape the the Country standards, it mainly consists of chasing around after family and friends so I sometimes dream of an 'even slower' life with a dog and having time to read on the sofa again etc. I'd probably fill it up through boredom and be knackered again.

I grew up in the country, moved to a small city for university, then a couple of years in Boston, then Paris, then ten years in London, then eight years in a village in the midlands, then rural Ireland, and yes, the pace of life is much slower in the country. It isn’t an insult.

(It may not be much slower than living in the suburbs of a small city, though. I’ve never lived in a suburb. I’m talking city centres, or zone 1/2 London.)

It's pretty accepted that London has a faster pace of living

Personally, I much prefer the slower pace of rural life. But I'm not going to agree that village life is similarly busy. I spent most of my life in a village and it's the opposite - relaxed, slow and calm.

London is like a tornado by comparison.

Yep. I've lived in London, home counties, now in the rural NW. I love living in the countryside, partly because my surroundings feel less busy and hectic when I'm out and about, but the pace of my own life is really determined by my job and how many social commitments I choose to have, not by my location. My job is very busy and stressful atm. The lovely countryside is a tonic, but it doesn't make me less busy!

There is an individual pace of life—commitments, career, social circle, etc. And then there is M25 blocked both ways for 3 miles, tube strike, morning rush hour, Blackwall tunnel carnage, moped gangs, stop oil/palestine/whatever is the latest fashion rally, and other London blessings, which are not a decision and not a choice; they are just THERE, between you and wherever you need to get to. London is faster, louder, busier, and more dangerous. Slower pace means taking out the extremes of London.

I'm sorry, I misquoted. The poster I meant to quote said "A faster pace of life means a buzzy atmosphere, lots going on, plenty of stimulation, bouncing easily from one place to another, being spontaneous, meeting new people constantly." and "There's nothing to do". It seemed to me a very narrow view of what makes life interesting.