To ask if anyone enjoyed growing up rurally?

[YellowRedwheels1]

I’ve been on MN long enough to know that all the threads about rural living mention how bad it is for teens and how they themselves really resented it etc.

However, I feel like myself and some of my friends must be anomalies then as I absolutely loved it and wouldn’t have wanted to have lived in a town or city.

I guess I’m worried as DC is 6 and currently loves the fact we live rurally, have a big garden for her to charge about in , she horse rides just down the road etc but I’m waiting for the inevitable resentment when she gets to her teenage years and for her to hate the countryside and spend all her adult life living in towns and cities due to being scarred from her time in the countryside!!

I never felt this way though, to be fair we did have a bus service in my village growing up, only 4 a day, one in the morning, one at lunchtime and then coming back one in morning one in evening to the nearest town and city so I wasn’t completely cut off in my teenage years.

Myself and my friends were involved in the YFC, rode horses etc and even now, a lot of them work in agriculture or live rurally. We just weren’t bothered by living in the countryside and it was almost a way of life for us?

These people all have normal jobs in the local towns and cities now that they commute for or a lot WFH, there’s a couple of drs who moved back and work at the local hospital, one is a university lecturer and again, works at the local university. Another a nurse, project manager in tech etc so it’s not like we’re all a load of unskilled/ qualified country bumpkins.

You just don’t ever see this side on MN, it’s nearly always how bad it is for teens and how living rurally is bad for them/ isolating.

Is there anyone else on here who grew up living rurally and enjoyed it?

No I’m with you. I grew up in the countryside, had horses and dogs, and loved it. Found it a bit hard when I was 16-18 and going out. Moved for college and I no, then moved around a lot, but ended up right back in the countryside again (with horses and dogs!).

Sorry, OP not what you want to hear but I hated it and got out at the first opportunity! Although I do think it's relevant that we moved from a town to the countryside when I was 11, maybe if I'd never known any different I'd have loved it? Who knows.

I loved it! Yes, when I was mid teens did I long for a city, but now I’m pushing 40, I can see the appeal of moving back.

That said, I’m not sure that I’d let my kids go out for bike rides or swim in rivers with their friends the way I did in the 90s.

I grew up in a rural village and still live there, in fact so do many of my friends and several have moved back.

I loved spending my youth mooching about in meadows and woodlands in all seasons. We are also by the sea so imo, had the best of both worlds.

My DC are now 17 and 19 and although they enjoy towns and cities they both love rural life so I feel no guilt for bringing them up amongst nature.

I love it so much that I'm looking forward to selling up and moving somewhere even more rural (too many new builds popping up within our village over the last few years).

We’re just about to move rural. 20 mins drive to a small city but no public transport links.

We’ve accepted that we will have to ferry them about. I think it would be unfair to move and then not facilitate them seeing friends/going out shopping etc. my husband uncle did that with his 16 year old. She had to leave her friends and then was stuck until she could drive and buy a car. I think that’s unfair.

Loved it, still love it ! Even as a teen , nothing like having a mope about in the woods ha

I moved away as job opportunities for my chosen career were non-existent in the countryside. realistically I’ll never move back. I simply cba to
drive 30 mins to buy some milk. Having said that my childhood was idyllic and I know that was a privilege. It’s a shame that bus services have got so much worse. It really means there’s limited opportunities for teenagers to have the kind of autonomy that I experienced.

Loved living in the countryside as a child but hated it as a teen. I moved away to a city university at 18 and loved it there(stayed in the city and still live here now, at 46). My teenaged children love being close to the city (they can walk into the city centre within 20 minutes) and they also love nature.

YANBU. Of course the hive mind of mumsnet does not amount to a representative sample of the general population. If it did everyone would live in London, earn 100k plus, be "solidly middle class", send their kids to private school hate dogs and regularly say "sorry that does not work for me"😂

I think you’ve put your finger on the key thing, though - you had four buses a day at useful times so you were able to move around reasonably easily to your nearest town and city, if you wanted. I grew up in rural Ireland in the days of hitching, and would hitch all over all the time with friends. It’s a different workd now.

Loved it. My parents were very amenable to lifts etc though through the teenage years. Moved to a city for uni and stayed there for several years afterwards but missed the open spaces and now back to living rurally again. I found city living quite claustrophobic in the end.

I loved it.. but we did have a bus that took us to a city in 35 minutes.. so it wasn't like the teenagers couldn't get shopping/city life if we wanted it.

Best of both. Walked to school through fields. Wood parties, beach parties, late night country walks to the pub etc. but then bus to the city every now and again.

Without the bus to the city, I think a lot would have struggled around 16-18, quite a few including me ended up getting part time jobs in the city, and there were certain "grown up" things for a teenager to do, that you just can't really do in the countryside (going for coffee, shopping, music concerts clubs, etc.) stupid stuff that felt really important as a teen.

I grew up in the countryside and loved it, then my parents moved us into town when I was 14, right on a busy road. Yes I liked being nearer my friends and it wasn’t as much of a pain getting around, but I missed our farm greatly. I’d rather have stayed.

I grew up remotely, which is even worse than rurally. I felt very isolated. It can work if there is a community

I lived in a rural area that was about a 60 minute drive from a major city.

I loved it. i was obsessed with horses and was able to have my own horse at livery after getting myself a job at 14. I did pony club and shows and gymkhanas and all that. We also a few times a year went to the city to see shows and theatre and attend concerts so I did not feel like i missed out that way.

I lived in a small suburban house but we were only a km away from farmland where I had my horse. I worked in the summer at a lavender farm and a strawberry far, and when I got older really enjoyed joining a walking club and we would hike most Sundays for a couple of hours.

I loved it.
Had to move away to get a job due to how very rural it was and hated all the years living in urban areas.

I moved back into a rural area as soon as I could, and there is not enough money on the planet to get me to visit London ever again.
The place stinks from 50 miles out and it's never ever quiet.

Don't know how people can choose to live somewhere that you never see the stars in a clear night sky due to light pollution either.

Loved it, had horses and spent all my time outside. Wish my DC were but DH is a city boy and would be miserable so we make do with as many weeks as possible at granny’s house and living in the greenest part of southwest London I could find!

Back then I loved it as a child, hated it as a teen. With the change in parenting standards nowadays though, I think I’d hate it even as a small child now. The things that made it amazing are things that would horrify parents nowadays. From about 8 years old we’d be gone all day, building dens in the woods, running through the farmers bull field getting it to chase us, tombstoning off cliffs into the sea, going up the headlands where the local travellers had dumped a load of barely broke horses and trying to jump of their backs. Parents didn’t have a clue of course. I think it would bore the life out of me now

Absolutely loved it as a primary aged child - it was the 70s and early 80s and lots of freedom.

As a non-driving teen it was a bit stifling but that was partly because my family were a bit insular.

My own kids are growing up now in the same area and the internet means they have so much more a wide view of life than I did. So much more info at their fingertips. I don't think they feel claustrophobic in quite the way I did.

You do have to be prepared to taxi them about everywhere though I am happy my two have friends and things they want to do at the weekend so I don't mind.

Also, kids are connected to their friends via phones in a way that was unthinkable when I was a teen. If you wanted to speak to your friend outside of school you had to call them after 6pm on the family landline!

Loved it as a small child but that was more the fact it was by the sea and than semi rural. Hated it as a teen ended up in London and Birmingham for a bit.i despised everyone knowing everyone’s business.

Moved away for uni and then in my 20s/early 30s London and abroad. As soon as my DC was born, I seem to have hot footed it back here though - which must mean I loved growing up here!

I loved it. I had ponies and the entire countryside was my playground. I had so much freedom to ride, walk and cycle where I liked. I think I am a resilient and confident person because of it.

When I was a bit older and wanted to go out in town etc I would just stay overnight with friends after.

i think so long as there’s a parent who’s willing to play taxi drivers its fine. Thats what I’m telling myself, out in sticks, with sociable and active 11 and 13 year olds. Best of both worlds.

Hated it as a teen. Living rurally (and being the default taxi for EVERTHING) makes my ‘things I will never do’ list. 🙂