What do you love about bringing kids up in London?

[plantsitter]

I'm pregnant (yay!) and debating whether or not to stay in London. I'm pretty clear on reasons to leave London but there must be plenty of good things about being a little kid here... what are your favourite things?

I live in Wimbledon - I love the range of parks and cafes; clubs and activities all a walk away. No need to get in my car. So the social aspect is great.
Downside for us is the noise when trying to get DS - 20 months 0 to sleep. He go off and then some siren will blare down the street.

The energy - we live by the river and walking the south bank always feels like an adventure - ds loves it. He loves the art galleries too.

People from everywhere. Children don't develop that assumption that speaking only English, or being white, is the "norm".

The accessibility of everything.

The multiculture.

The busyness.

The ease of getting them around.

The theatre (Kids go free in August).

The museums (so basically the culture).

I love London. Can't imagine bringing my DC up anywhere else.

everything mentioned on here is in lots of other cities too

we do have art galleries and museums you know

Being able to walk out of the house to get to lovely parks, coffee shops, soft plays. The Natural History Museum, the Thames, the Zoo, Aquarium, even trips on the Tube, buses or in taxis all provide endless entertainment and education for little ones (and their parents!). We have contemplated moving out (mainly because of the huge issue of the standard of local schools) but the thought of having to get in a car (or some kind of transport)to get anywhere and then having such a comparatively restricted choice of things to do is depressing to me at the moment - life as a SAHM mum would be very different.

Having said all this, I am not so keen on being here when DC's get to the age where they want to be out and about by themselves. I see older children on the tube on the way to school and find it a bit sad (looks like commuting long before they should be) and the thought of my DS wandering through Camden alone, even as a young teenager, is frankly terrifying!

Do kids really go free in August at the theatre? How cool! I knew there were good reasons. I especially like the multiculture stuff and the fact you can be a bit odd if you like and no-one seems to mind.

i went to manchester museum with a friend at christmas olive, it was great but obv not as good as the london ones! oh and eureka! in halifax is one of the best i've ever been to

oh I am sure London has the monopoly on museums etc, but these sort of threads make me a bit hmmmmmm as if life will end if you leave London and you will end up doomed

as you were

Ditto all of the above - we love living in London and raising 3 kids here. Whenever we drive back into town, usually we have to cross one of the bridges and I look down the Thames and think how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place, despite the noise and dirt. Walking to a cafe in the early days of parenthood is a joy, open spaces of S London on my doorstep, great free stuff for kids, brilliant cinemas. A ride on a double decker bus is enough to calm a stroppy 2 yr old any time.

And despite the doom and gloom that you read in the papers, there are really good thriving primary schools in most areas.

Oh, and congrats on your pregnancy!

The multicultural aspect is incredibly important to us. At DD's nursery she's got rich kids, poor kids, black kids, asian kids, white kids. At the bottom of our road there's a Greek delicatessen next to a Baptist church and further along, there's Afro-Carribean restaurant next to a halal butchers and a Polish shop. I just love that DD will grow up surrounded by so many cultures - some friends who've moved out of London really miss that and find that all their neighbours, friends, shopkeepers etc. are all white English with similar attitudes to life (not good, not bad, just similar).

Plus everything which everyone else said. I just love London. Yes, it's dirty, expensive, bad schools etc. but it's an amazing place and I think DD will be lucky to be brought up here. I would have given an arm, a leg and probably several internal organs to have lived here as a child (especially as a teenager) rather than the village I grew up in.

I don't think I could move back Up North, but that's partly because I couldn't do my job anywhere else except the smoke, and i lurve it!

This is great; it's making me go all London-mushy. I have fantasies about moving back up North but whenever I go and visit my mum there, I end up feeling I couldn't possibly. Could just be my mum of course. And thanks for the congrats!

madcol with mine I find the noisiness a bonus, they have grown used to it so can ignore it and can sleep anywhere.

Fab public transport too, I just got back from a while in Yorkshire where you have to fold the pushchair for buses, nightmare!

Also I can spend the day wandering around e.g the Southbank, whereas people in smaller towns take day trips to shopping centres.

oh god I want to move back to London now

Oh god, I grew up in the North as well and go back there to see both sets of grandparents. When we spend a long weekend there and I typically spend the first day thinking "mmmm, how very lovely and relaxed this is compared to frenetic old London" and the last day thinking "if I've lived here I'd be clawing out my spleen in boredom".

Just doing that you take for granted in London during the summer (e.g. trip of London Zoo) would constitute the highlight of the summer holidays back in Yorkshire. I remember going to Flamingo Land was literally the zenith of excitement for me and my bro when we were growing up.

Oh yes - and with the noisiness, also the bustle. We used to have a school run (on public transport, of course) which went through Paddington at rushhour & ds & dd got fabulously good at neatly threading through crowds without triggering grump in any commuter. (Which is quite something, considering the mass potential grump of peak hour.)

I do think it's the mix most, though. A good half or more of ds & dd's classmates have another language as well as English, & they just think that's usual & ordinary. It wouldn't be that way anywhere but London - I think (except in specific areas where the non-English language is all the same one, if you see what I mean - which is a separate issue & really the opposite of diversity).

I have to say that this is making me a lot less nervous about potentially moving there in the next couple of months. I am a West Country girl and it all seems incredibly noisy and scary whenever I have visited

I'm a Londoner, born and bred. My kids live on the borders of Kent and London which IMO is far too close to London. I'd love to sell up and move away. I can't think of anything I really like about the place...sorry.

Exactly what Batters, MarsLady etc say.

My DCs are 6 and 4 and London is really opening up to us and them. Its fantastic. Transport is great, if you are not tied to a daily commute. Great mixture of museums/shops/theatres/experiences. Great access to parks and open spaces where we are.

Friends have moved out of London and although are technically in the "countryside" have to drive everywhere - can't even cycle, as the roads are narrow and fast. We cycle everywhere.

I love living in London with small children .

now I am going to have to put this thread on ignore I am afraid, it is most tedious

London is not the be all and end all, the rest of the country is not a wasteland!!!

and also, what is wrong with white people? as if living in a white area is somehow inferior to the good old multicultrual wonderland

harrumph

oh god I really really want to move back now.