To belive that my children are having a great childhood in London?

[mrsruffallo]

Annoying woman at parent and toddler grouip today.
She was noisily proclaiming her intention to leave London before her child turned 5 as it's an awful place to grow up!
I said if not here, where?
There is so much to do, lovely green spaces, much better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere
Turned into quite a lively discussion

Onebat - my advice to you is learn Gaelic and then come to Glasgow. They've got it sewn up.

i meant, i grew up in a town that is NOW (not Not) over run with DFLs

"Which leads me to conclude that the discussion is rather pointless, because everywhere has both good and bad points. "

ME, you have settled me. Of course you're right.

But there is a specifically now parental neuroticism that needs to be expressed in order to be controlled - so thread not entirely pointless.

I feel much better now, see?

Oh absolutely Onebat. I just need to stop myself from getting started as my own parental neurosis on the subject really knows no bounds once I get going.

I worked once for Wee Kirsty Wark. Wish I'd tried a bit harder now

Right off to research social media and education

...do oyu really OBm?
why and what for

Phew - just ran downstairs to tape madmen. Thanks!

BS re cupboard? Well, it's money really. bedrooms like cupboards.
Is that what you meant?

there is a very big difference between moving to london, having children and thinking about where would be best to bring them up and actually coming from london with all one's family here etc.

moving out of london would be like emigrating for me. that has its temptations of course...

I'd love to move from the country to the city; museeums, shops, more than one insular cliquey school, PUBLIC TRANSPORT, nice walks in actual parks where you don't run the risk of being shot at...

The country does have lots going for it, but I'd like a middle-ground. (Small town, say.)

GOML
i cant tell you on here

will email you ALL i know

arf

Aha, fishie plays the 'you lot are not PROPER Londoners anyway' card. Masterstroke!

I grew up with all white faces,felt very claustrophobic.Found London as very liberating and exciting.

discovered many great things(rice and peas.jellof rice). Have met really nice people too.now I get itchy if I am in townsville.

I live in Paris, not London, but I agree that big cities are fabulous places to live for children - provided they get to go out to the countryside/beach/mountains regularly and get in touch with nature and a less stressful existence!

Edge of city is good, actually - we are across the river from a small city, and about an hour from two bigger cities. We get all the village benefits, plus when dcs are older, they can get the bus and be in city centre in 15-20 mins.

brad you make hogs back sound like baltimore. are there corners?

Oooh brad curiouser and curiouser

(brad obv one of the gambinos or summat)

depends here you live in london to be honest.affluent chichi london and galleries is a hell of lot different from grim estates and poverty of london

ha midnight express. it is true though, people are quite horrified when they find i am actual from e london - everyone else has legged it to essex.

"there is a very big difference between moving to london, having children and thinking about where would be best to bring them up and actually coming from london with all one's family here etc. "

yes, i can relate to that. it's surprising how a lot of the 'latecomers' try their best to seem like proper londoners during their twenties and rapidly try to shake it off again as soon as nesting begins.

at legging it to Essex. Am surprised they don't leg it straight back tbh.

I do not wish to become the mum at the school gate (village in deepest Shropshire) saying "when i lived in London, I used to live in London, London is .... I used to live there etc." In order to look as if i've had a life. ....but i'm clearly not one of the many who attended the same primary as my kids and did once get asked at a preschool meeting if i was "Village". As in "are you village?" WTF????

anabella - I'm one of those.

I moved to London as a student and thought I'd live there forever. Now I have 2 DCs we have just left and I've moved back to my hometown.

I miss London - the parks, the museums, the decent restaurants. But on the whole I am happy we moved.

If I could have the life I have now, but in London, then I would have loved to stay but we couldn't afford it. Our house was small and our garden tiny. We lived in an expensive part of town but couldn't keep up with everybody else. We couldn't afford the school fees and the state schools were poor (and I couldn't be bothered with the scrum). The nursery fees were so high I would have had very little left if I went back to work. We didn't have the time or the money to do all of the things we loved before we had children (dinner, theatre, long afternoons in the pub).

I'm sure we'll miss it as the children get older but we are only 50 minutes away now and I actually visit central london more now than I did living in zone 3!

One thing I have really noticed is the 'buzzing cosmopolitan' thing. Actually, although London is diverse in terms of nationalities, the area I used to live in was populated by people exactly like me who read the same papers, wore the same clothes, had the same buggy, same changing bag etc. Now I'm surrounded by a huge wealth of people from all different paths ... far more so than I ever did in London.

But I can't get a decent organic burger for love nor money

fishie WHERE in E London are you ?
Ah, Essex.. do you know Essex? is there anywhere you'd like to bring up a non-white child there?

fruitstick - sounds like you made the right choice. i didn't know there was anywhere 50 mins from c London more diverse than London iteslf - Woking perhaps?