To be a bit envious of this lifestyle? (USA)

[ThePinkPonyClub]

I've just watched School Swap: UK to USA on Channel 4 and have ended up feeling a teensy bit jealous of the kind of lifestyle that's possible over there.

Even normal, non wealthy families seemed to be able to live really outdoorsy lifestyles where they can hike and hunt and boat amongst the gorgeous scenery. I feel like in the UK, even rurally it isn't possible as everywhere is so densely populated especially when the weather is nice. The weather is also a limiting factor!

I'm obviously not jealous of the MAGA/Trump craziness or the crappy healthcare and all the rest of the political stuff but purely the lifestyle side of things, it seems so much more possible to live in that free, outdoorsy kind of way.

And the schools seemed to have a much more positive, enthusiastic culture with things like school sports and dances, compared to the UK teens in their drab uniforms staring at their phones the whole time in their miserable, run down secondary school.

aibu? Anyone live this kind of life in the UK? If so, where?!

I have a lot of US family and it really all depends on where you live. The USA is a big place.

And their chances of seeing a fentanyl overdose is much higher

I know that feeling from watching movies where people have a lake house or a massive house with huge garden and a porch with swinging chairs. And a basement! And a laundry room!
Probably as unlikely to be an average life in America as Notting Hill was with average people living in period houses in Notting Hill.
I do crave space though. Oh to have a basement for the kids.

Sorry to say, but that is pretty common outside of ‘downtown’ urban condo/apt living.

I’m pretty average living in an average suburb of an average city and have all of those things except the lake house. Where I live the ‘cabin up north’ is not unusual.

You can do lots of hiking in the UK if you live in the right place. I know people in NYC and they don't do any hiking!
I watched School Swap and there were aspects of the US school I didn't like at all, such as the racism. The school patriotism seemed a bit weird as well. The one thing that really struck me was the boy who said he never wanted to travel again or have a passport.
If I could choose to live in US or UK, I would definitely choose UK.

The US is vast so everything is so far away from each other, which is a huge disadvantage I don't agree that the UK is overcrowded in the UK countryside. We spent a lot of holidays and day trips in the countryside and it's really not crowded. The only crowded outside places I've seen are places like Hyde Park.

I too watched the show. As in most things (School open Days ,meetings with prospective parents) All the greatest and good pupils are rolled out .They have a different culture there for sure .Where we live we are fortunate to have beautiful beaches ,Lovely countryside, New forest 30 min drive .My DC have enjoyed all this and more.I am sure most of UK have similar whether countryside ,lakes or whatever.KS has his faults and RR as well,but between them they couldnt be as bad as Trump is! I have been to the States, and enjoyed our holidays in Florida .My DS has toured widely. I dont feel all our Schools are rundown at all .All teens are wedded to their phones !

We have the outdoors on our doorstep in the UK and we’re certainly not rich. However lots of people wouldn’t dream of living where we do because of the lack of infrastructure etc.

Swings and roundabouts.

Married to an American and long term planning on settling in America. More rural, hunting trails through our own property. Yes we do have a laundry room. It's very much an outdoor life there as we have 8 acres and keep animals. Big wrap around porch with chair to watch the sunset from but its an additional space to help clean and dry any produce we've grown. I'm currently in the uk though but I can be out on rural hikes within 10 minutes of leaving my front door (on foot).

The downsides of the American home is tornadoes which tends to wipe electric out for a week roughly every other year. And the local town is currently drying out from severe flooding. Though saying that my uk town flooded twice so far this winter but not as badly as much smaller river. Not really affected by the flooding in either location because both properties up in the hills.

You don't however go out hiking in the middle of summer because it's too damm hot and humid. The picture is the flooding earlier this week. No one is hiking in that.

There are violent pissheads all over UK towns after a certain hour

I live in the South East. I have forest trails on my doorstep in virtually every direction. I have local independent shops etc and don't need to get in a car and pollute my locality just to go for a hike.

I was brought up in the North West of Scotland. Mountains, lochs, rivers, beaches and amazing islands a short ferry ride away. I have managed to keep a small place at home for my extended family.
Lots of space and the right to roam without someone shooting a gun.

My DH is from Northumberland a beautiful county, great beaches and hiking.

Maybe explore the UK.

And life in the SE of England is not the same as life elsewhere in England.

To be fair, we do live in England.

I think one difference is that in the UK we have multiple “attractions” often within a small geographical area - for example, I can drive for less than an hour and be at the beach, in the hills, on the moors, in a big city, at many museums, art galleries, stately homes, parks and other things. And I live in a fairly quiet area. So it’s easy to pop out for a quick walk on the beach or a picnic at a nearby historic home (both things I’ve done in the last two days) and it’s also pretty cheap if you have passes etc. In the US or Canada, obviously they have many attractions but they are much more spread out once you’re out of the cities, and even within them driving often takes a long time. So it’s more likely people will do something that’s easier for them to access like hunting or going to the nearest lake. We do, as a nation, do stuff outdoors but it’s often more on the lines of walking round gardens. There just aren’t those kinds of things readily available in much of the US/Canada. Swings and roundabouts really.

Yeah I agree with other posters, I live in Scotland, very outdoorsy lifestyle of beach, hills, forest etc. Evenings and weekends in lighter months are biking, walking, paddleboarding etc. Yes it's colder but we're quite used to wearing fleece with shorts etc and then when the weather is gorgeous like this week making the most of it! Maybe just try and replicate the outdoorsy lifestyle you'd like near you? Decathlon, Mountain Warehouse were good starting points for investing in kit for us.

No, but even what people consider rural in England tends to be much more populated than Scotland.

www.google.com/search?q=pppulation+density+map+uk&oq=pppulation+density+map+uk&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMgkIAhAAGA0YgAQyCQgDEAAYDRiABDIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHjIICAoQABgWGB4yCAgLEAAYFhgeMggIDBAAGBYYHjIICA0QABgWGB4yCAgOEAAYFhge0gEHMzY5ajBqN6gCFLACAfEF1V-www.google.com/search?q=pppulation+density+map+uk&oq=pppulation+density+map+uk&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMgkIAhAAGA0YgAQyCQgDEAAYDRiABDIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHjIICAoQABgWGB4yCAgLEAAYFhgeMggIDBAAGBYYHjIICA0QABgWGB4yCAgOEAAYFhge0gEHMzY5ajBqN6gCFLACAfEF1V-eTmKoL14&client=ms-android-samsung-gs-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=2JAbbN-GQPFdiM&vssid=_j3D6Z9zeEq6ThbIP7fONoQ8_43eTmKoL14&client=ms-android-samsung-gs-rev1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=2JAbbN-GQPFdiM&vssid=_j3D6Z9zeEq6ThbIP7fONoQ8_43

you know they have the same in the states 😆 they do drink there too, in fact the bars are full of pissheads. Go to to the Bible Belt, you might even get some real pleasant violent racists there. They even throw in some Bible verses for you too.

What do you mean by "do some real walking"? Their national parks and wildernesses are so big I don't understand what you mean really.

weird comment
do you think all tv shows focus on the good bits and downplay the rubbish bits?
What 'rubbish bits' are downplayed, in, say, 24 hrs in police custody, or adolescence, or coronation street?

And this show in particular was made by CH4 so if anything you'd think it would be the complete opposite and would focus on the good bits of a UK education and downplay the bad bits, rather than vice versa.

tbf having watched it, it seemed fairly balanced for both sides.

I can see what you mean OP, but the problem was it wasn't comparing like for like. If they had done a rural school in mid wales or north scotland vs a high school in new york you might have thought a similar thing but in the other direction.

The weather does help a lot in the US (and Australia/Canada where people often have a similar outdoorsy lifestyle) - but bear in mind the US is huge, in lots of states it's way too hot to do much outdoorsy stuff for half the year, and in other states winters can be far colder. Also nordic countries have far more outdoorsy lifestyles despite even 'worse' (in terms of less sun and hours of daylight albeit possible also less rain) so it's not an overriding limitation - people could achieve that sort of life in the UK if they really wanted to. Not exactly the same as the huntin' shootin' fishin' shown in that TV show, but I live near the sea and know lots of people who swim and surf all year round, for example.

Because the USA is huge and some areas are less expensive to live in. If you are talking about ‘hunting’ then you are not talking about expensive cities like Boston/NY/LA. Believe you me it can be incredibly expensive depending on location.
It’s the same here.

Totally agree. In these type of communities you need to fit in i.e. be a white Christian family.

Depends where you live. I'm on the Wirral, my kids do watersports, always out walking and biking along the coast, my daughter horse rides. Obviously not much to be done about the weather but we did go the beach this morning.

It did occur to me that they weren't really comparing like to like in the show. I'm sure if the American school was an inner city one it would have felt different.

But that being said I don't think even a fairly rural UK school would have compared. I live in a sort of middling, kind of rural town that's similar to where most of non city dwellers in the UK live I would imagine. Sure, there are some lovely walks (I'm out a lot with my dogs) but you rarely get that 'out in the wilderness' vibe. We camp too but again it feels a lot more commercialised and cramped - you are forbidden from wild camping or wild swimming in lots of places and anywhere where you can do that kind of thing becomes mega busy as soon as the sun comes out!

I'm just fascinated by it!

I live in a UK national park and live that lifestyle, as do many people I know here. We have the right to roam over hundreds of thousands of rights of way in the UK, national parks, incredible coastlines - which are free. In so many parts of the world, beaches and parks are private and the public aren't able to use them freely. The outdoors lifestyle is there for the taking - IF the weather plays ball!

Uabu. It's a massive place. A lot of parts are so car centric you have to drive everywhere, there are just no walkways to even walk a block.

Some areas have snakes etc.

You can have the outdoorsy life in the UK