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?

Oh yes, Bink - My DS's class at school is like that. His best mates are respectively South Korean, half-German, Israeli and English. In his nursery class of 10 only 3 of them (him included) were not bi-lingual!

fabulous

Oliveoil - surely the OP was just asking for reassurance about staying in London. I don't think anyone is saying living outside London is a bad thing...

I'm in London and for me its the school issue that's going to get me in the end I fear.

I don't live in London but in Paris. It has practically all the pluses of London mentioned on this thread.

My big reservation about living in the centre of a metropolis with children is open space and freedom. If I didn't have somewhere in the countryside to escape to regularly, and where my children can experience a completely different and freer way of life, I am not sure I would be quite so at ease with brining them up in the city. I know a lot of people here who have lived in an urban environment all their lives - and they have limitations that people who have lived in the countryside do not have.

what sort of limitations Anna?

No, I don't think that London is the be all and end all, OO. But I do think that it gets an unfair press when there are so many positive aspects of it.

I had a very mono-cultural upbringing in the sticks. Nothing inherently wrong with that. As I've got older and travelled, I've picked up interesting views from other cultures. I'm glad that my DCs get the opportunity to do this.

For me, London is a great place to live with children. I think that was what the OP was asking. I'm sure other places are very nice to live as well

But London is the greenest capital city in the World! Huge open spaces - Richmond, Epping Forest etc and some pretty big ones right in the centre - Hyde Park, Regents Park etc.

Olive Oil I'm with you. Dh's mate lives in London & is quite shocked that ds (mixed race) has no non-white friends. We live near Marlow. Friend says the school next to him is fab, all the ethnic diversity yada yada, but the fact is that schools where English is not the first language do very very poorly.

They don't always understand about the natural world and that human beings are animals too and need to live in harmony with nature. They have little understanding of rural life.

Oh please, let's not turn this thread into an argument about multiculturalism... we're going to get into pretty sticky territory.

Anna - yes you may be right.

By that virtue Anna, rural children have very little understanding of urban life don't they? Is that less important?

Oliveoil - London constantly gets a bashing, so it's nice to hear it getting a cheer for once. I've been told so many times that I'd want to leave once I have kids, and it's just not true.

Whilst, reassuring OO that I think there are LOTS of other fantastic places to live, here's what I love about my London life:

hardly ever using a car

fantastic local shops selling everything from pak-choi, strange yams, posh olives and breads, you name it, we can walk there and buy it! YUM!

the social and multi-cultural diversity

I can cycle into central London in 20-30 minutes

the endless museums, theatres, opera/concerts

my friends - so many of whom live a short walk away

I love bringing my DD up in London mainly because we hardly have to use the car which is a big plus in my life.

We walk everywhere or jump on buses.

I'm a Londoner and it's massively important to me. My DD will grow up having Regents Park as her local park which is pretty fabulous. Plus the availability of everything and the mixture of people.

Also, for when they are older, I think it's great if your home is in London. After university lots of people came to London (at least for a while) and if they were not from London originally it was hard. I like the idea that when she's 21, she'll have somewhere to stay while she establishes her own life and career (OK I'm massively projecting my own life and experience onto her and she's only 19mo and may end up as a farmer in Devon but somehow I doubt it).

SydneyB - it is not an either/or argument.

Interestingly enough, however, my parents live in a very rural environment and the children from the local farms always impress me with their understanding of the world at large. Maybe children in rural areas are less cut off from urban culture than the opposite - the media, after all, tells us a lot more about urban that rural culture.

Anna - true true. I guess you're more likely to be criticised for bringing up kids in a city though. There is this whole rural idyll thing which doens't really exist. I was brought up in the absolute middle of nowhere. It was very pretty. But in the winter it was cold, wet, muddy and there was absolutely NOTHING to do. So, I guess I have a bias. But as a child it was just downright boring. And once I was old enough to want to go places on my own I just couldn't as I had to rely on my parents to drive me everywhere. I have friends who just assume that we will move out of London now we have an 18mth DD and another on the way. That irritates me. But yes, you're right its not a simple either or.

Oliveoil: as Anchovy says, it's invariably London that gets an unfair press about how dirty, expensive, violent and polluted it is and the schools/ houses are awful. I've lost count of the number of times people have said things along the lines of "Oh, you just can't bring up a child in London" or "Are you planning to move out soon?". No-one ever bothers pointing out that (a) some of these things aren't true and (b) there are hundreds of benefits which London has over other places.

And yes, actually I think a multicultural upbringing is pretty important as it exposes children to new influences, ideas, religions and philosophies than being raised in a place where everyone shares a broadly similar view. And it's hardly as though the DD won't have the benefit of being exposed to English culture/ tradition as that remains the majority culture by far both in society and in the media.

I really try to ensure that we spend most of our holidays in the countryside and at the (non-urban) beach (and, before I get flamed, I know I am immensely lucky to be able to make that choice). I didn't grow up in a metropolis (though I did see lots of different cultures) and I really want my children to have that experience of freedom that I had.

I certainly didn't mean it to be a 'London is the centre of the universe' thing, Oliveoil, I haven't lived here all my life so I know other places are great. And full of people not scowling at you. Just that noth having been brought up here myself I wondered if all my Northern friends are right and I really am mad to stay here! Seems maybe not.

Anna: I wonder to what extent Paris and London are comparable. I've lived in both but find them to be quite different, although that's maybe because I'm English.

They are different, but I found I agreed with nearly all the arguments put forward for bringing children up in London - the same applies to Paris.

I can see where olive is coming from. We have a very london-centric media. However I think there are lots of great things in London for children. We spent a long weekend there at half term and my 7yo loved it. Also a bit of a bias on the free musuems being in London. Could have spent ages longer in the nat history and science musuem. Have done the NRM to death really. Eureka is quite expensive. DD not that impressed with Imperial War Museum. etc.

My reason won;t apply to most - I love London because DS and I look "normal" rather than like the village side-show.

A couple of my friends moved out of London for all the usual reasons during their pregnancies. They've ended up feeling very isolated - basically stuck at home alone with a small baby. If you've got a network of friends here they will be invaluable to you. DD is 5mths old, I've got good friends nearby, also with small babies, and through them I've met other mums. And there's a huge amount of stuff to do; I'm sure that's the same in other towns and cities but here it's all on the doorstep, I can walk to local activities with the pram no problem and the buses are brilliant for getting further afield.

I love all the things that they can do, try out, see, the massive amounts of culture, art. The fact that we can pop to amazing museums and art galleries, she goes to all the free art workshops at the National. That London is so green compared to pretty much every other capital city. That she goes to a completely multicultural school. Our friends and family are all here, our work is here. I love love love it.