Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

The countryside is LOVELY but I'd not want to live there.

94 replies

AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 27/07/2015 12:02

I grew up in the countryside and always believed I'd end up in countryside with my children.

Viewed a house in the countryside yesterday. It's only 3 miles from the nearest town, on mostly single track roads. I'm shocked at how awful I found it. Not the countryside as such (that was stunningly beautiful as one would expect) but the prospect of living in the countryside. The house was gorgeous, ticked all the boxes. Except that it is in the countryside. All that having to drive everywhere. We drive very little. Our car is 10 years old (we've had it since new) and has done 30,000 miles (mostly racked up on holiday). I found myself wondering where we would go for a walk as a family with our lovely dog (we have lovely walks through parks and on trails close to where we currently live). There are loads of different walks none of which involves a car. Walking on single track roads with no pavements is no fun with small children and a dog. And ditto cycling. (We do a lot of cycling as a family.) And when it comes time for your children to learn to drive, I would be terrified of them coming home in cars on single track roads. I found it such a stressful headache just driving to get there and I used to live about 9 miles down a single track road so I'm well used to it.

And then I started to think about the difficulty of getting a babysitter: we like to go out with friends and to the theatre/cinemea. And the difficulty of getting to friends' houses for dinner, and them coming to us. And getting the children to and from school and to and from their activities. And for us going about our work. Ugh. It felt terribly depressing.

I think I've decided I prefer to live in town. I can think of no reason to live in the countryside (unless you derive your income from being there).

Does anyone else feel the same?

OP posts:
IDismyname · 27/07/2015 12:44

Errr... Nope.

I live in the country, have a 17 DS learning to drive down all sorts of roads, all full of potential babysitters.

You are being VV Unreasonable indeed, and passing country dwellers off as some sort of sub species.

I can only assume this is some sort of wind up.

RCheshire · 27/07/2015 12:46

Of course others do, hence cities, towns and suburbs being so popular. Plenty however don't want those options and find the country ideal. Horses for courses of course.

ExitPursuedByABear · 27/07/2015 12:47

You stay in town then.

Job sorted.

Only1scoop · 27/07/2015 12:48

No way....

Country all the way for me.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 27/07/2015 12:49

Nope. I love living in the countryside, have done since we moved here when the dc were all under 10 and ds1 now 19.

Clearly it isnt for everyone though, or the towns wouldn't be so full.

Good luck with your townie property search.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 27/07/2015 12:51

Sounds like my idea of heaven. Peace and quiet, quiet roads, no neighbours, no noise, lovely lanes to walk or cycle through. Bliss.

Surely that's what a car is for?

RaisingSteam · 27/07/2015 12:52

The point is that an isolated cottage down single track roads is quite an extreme "countryside" experience. A tiny percentage of the population live in places like this and they were originally farmhouses anyway. Most people live in villages and small towns which are fairly rural but where it's quite possible to have a life.

You often get this in MN where "The Countryside" is like some void you fall into the minute you leave London and are immediately cut off from all civilisation and forced to keep chickens. There is no in-between!

OP do whatever suits you best!

fleamadonna · 27/07/2015 12:52

ah well op, more for us folks that want it! Grin

specialsubject · 27/07/2015 12:55

yep, that is the usual daftness where houses are either all in a town or miles from anywhere. There are compromises which solve all the problems you mention.

I live in just such a perfect place and I'm not selling it to you, so yah boo sucks. Grin

Itscurtainsforyou · 27/07/2015 12:56

I agree OP. I lived in a remote village for a year. No local shop, had to drive to buy a newspaper. Awful public transport.
Beautiful views etc but I'm obviously a townie at heart. Smile

EddieVeddersfoxymop · 27/07/2015 12:58

I'd never live in the town! Too many people, too much noise..........I live in a small village and it's just great. I learned to drive in the place i live, tiny country roads - you just get used to them. Ditto for walking and cycling, I take my 7 year old out on her bike on the roads. She's sensible, the cars are few and far between and honestly, it's fine. You don't like it? Simple, don't move there. Country living is not for everyone, just like town living.

shovetheholly · 27/07/2015 12:59

I made that mistake. Moved from the city to the countryside, thinking it would be lovely in spite of misgivings. It wasn't. I hated it. Am now back in the city, thank goodness, and I will never, ever make that error again!

Obviously, we're all different others love it, but trust your instincts!

Donatellalymanmoss · 27/07/2015 13:01

raisingsteam yes I've noticed that too, it's like people don't realise the UK has other cities and hundreds of small towns and large villages.

I loved London but when I left I went to another UK city that pretty much provides me with what I wanted from London, but at a lower cost and higher standard of living. Some people just have no imagination.

RaisingSteam · 27/07/2015 13:01

Gotta love some statistics. In 2011 census, 15% of population lived in rural settlement (ie. towns under 10 000 or villages), and 3.5% in hamlet or isolated dwelling. So if isolation's not for you then you're in good company with the other 96.5% of the population!

PuppyMonkey · 27/07/2015 13:04

Laughing at the idea you can go for better walks with your dog in a city park than in the proper country. Grin

MozzchopsThirty · 27/07/2015 13:07

Wow there are some mean posts on here!

I'm definitely a city person, grew up in a small village and hated it!
I love the noise, people, convenience of being in the city, I like having choice of when and where to shop. I like having a major teaching hospital down the road.

We don't all like the same places or things, it would be an odd world if we did.
Given the sharp replies of some of the country dwellers on here OP I'd steer clear Grin

LatinForTelly · 27/07/2015 13:22

You have a kindred spirit, OP This thread made me chortle when I was first on mumsnet.

I live in the country and find it beautiful, but oppressive. I miss coffee shops where nobody knows you.

Original poster
AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 27/07/2015 13:46

PuppyMonkey We don't only walk in the park but also in open countryside. I live within 10 minutes walk of the station (19 mins into c London) and 3 minutes walk to a superb park that opens up on to countryside (park, countryside, farm land, common land) in various directions. The walking is very much better than living in the countryside near one or two public footpaths if you're lucky.

OP posts:
Original poster
AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons · 27/07/2015 13:51

I didn't mean to offend country-dwellers. (I come from a long line of farmers.) Just discussing how I now find the countryside.

Although the single track road was not a long drive I found myself thinking: 'Gawd, imagine this in the snow or on a dark, wet February morning.'

OP posts:
OnePlanOnHouzz · 27/07/2015 18:18

I love the countryside where I live - but having just got my wrist put in a cast today that makes it tricky to drive, I'm now beginning to wonder if I'll still feel the same when I've been stuck here all week !!!
I'll let you know - at least there's a pub within walking distance !!!

MoonlightS0nata · 27/07/2015 19:08

yawn, just stay in the city then. Who cares?

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 27/07/2015 19:14

I lived in a city on the South Coast with loads to do till I was forty then spent three years in suburbia (absolutely awful!) before moving to a small village four years ago. We had a (very good) shop/post office, butcher, farm shop and pub (the latter not so good) and we were approximately three miles from the nearest market town.

Not being a driver I found life there very restricting and as someone that loves walking, it felt odd going for a solitary walk through the countryside in a way I never had in the city......so we got a dog in order for it to look like my walking had a purpose, but then I found walking along country lanes with no footpath coupled with dozens of speeding motorists/cyclists a PITA, so instead would get DH to drive to a nearby woods - or the large park in town - to walk the dog!

I guess I'm strange and in the minority, but I certainly didn't like life in the village much either - neighbours were either very unfriendly (yet the majority of these were incomers too) or else extremely nosey or both - and there was no community spirit or atmosphere as we'd expected, but I think a lot of that was down to our village being bisected by an A road so there was no village green or 'centre' except the shop, which (although we used it) was mainly frequented by weekenders up from London as many 'locals' thought it too pricey.....

Tbh, whilst we moved away last year and now live in a village on the edge of a city but with countryside five minutes walk away which does suit me better regarding amenities (there are five coffee shops within fifteen minutes walk), I would move back to a rural setting, despite not driving, but I'd actually prefer to be totally in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours for miles, as opposed to a rural village setting......think I'm an 'all or nothing' kind of girl, lol!

ThatBloodyWoman · 27/07/2015 19:20

I love the countryside.
Funnily enough city is the next choice.
The suburbs is my idea of a personal hell.

Sparklingbrook · 27/07/2015 19:21

I live on the edge of the countryside. It's a good compromise. I wouldn't like the thought that if I needed anything it would mean having to go in the car.

I wouldn't like to live in the middle of nowhere, my teens are not driving age yet but wouldn't want to be continually driving them about even more than I do now because public transport isn't great in the villages around here.

Couldn't live in a very busy city either though.

Lizzylou · 27/07/2015 19:21

Like Specialsubject I have the best of both worlds, we feel rural yet we are only a 10minute walk to post office/deli/restaurants, short drive to town centre and have easy links to nearby city.
I have lived in a small city and enjoyed it at the time, but it really isn't my thing. I feel claustrophobic after a while.
I like my own space, but not too much of it iyswim.