Children and farms - the GOOD and the BAD about bringing up kids on a homestead.

[Gaz]

We have two small children - and all they have experienced is growing up on our farm. I have two older children who grew up in a city...so as a dad I have seen the good and bad of bringing children up in both environments. My choice would be having my children on a farm....but maybe there choice would be different (remind me to ask them when they are adults)

I was brought up in a suburban house in Sydney Australia. My partner Jen was brought up in rural Casco Maine....not more than 500 yards from where we now live. So between us we have experienced as kids from both perspectives.

So as a fun activity we wrote down all the good and the bad that we think we have for bringing up our kids on our Maine farm...and compared notes. Surprisingly our lists were almost the same.

So here is a summary of our list:


http://www.almostafarmer.com/farms-and-children/

We would love to hear others comments and experiences? What have we missed?

Cheers

Gaz
www.almostafarmer.com

 

[JimWWhite]

We have six beautiful grandkids, three girls and three boys. I know for a fact they can't wait to get to MamMaw's and PawPaw's when they come to visit. They all live in the surburbs. One lives up just to the north of Toronto, Ontario. Two live in the DC area and our closest three live in Burlington, NC. Obviously we see the three from Burlington more often than the others. Their Mommy drops them off at my office on Fridays which is about half way between there and here. They are always full of it when they get in the car and explode out of it when I finally get them home. We live way out in the country. We're seven miles from the nearest little town and about a half mile down a gravel lane off of a two lane country road. Quiet and peaceful, except maybe on the weekends when the kids come calling. Right off the bat everyone wants to collect eggs and let the hens out and play with the dogs. Then they want to pick tomatoes, cukes, squash and beans. In the spring and fall when I'm planting the garden I always wait for them so they can help. Each have their own boxes they can plant in whatever they want. They'll even bring seeds from home they bought at the store so they can plant them here. We always take them with us when we go up to my friend's orchard in the fall to pick apples and pick strawberries in the spring. This year they got to pick blueberries from our own bushes. I think they ate as many as they picked though. On Sunday afternoons when we take them back Olivia always cries because she doesn't want to leave. Oh, I almost forgot to mention there is a golf cart and they run all over the trails around us and the lane with it until the batteries are just about to run out. I think the place is a rural Disney Land to them.

One day a couple of years ago we were sitting around on the patio and a conversation came up with Halie, our oldest at 14 years. They had just recently moved to Burlington from Winston-Salem and we were talking about them being too far away now. I suggested that we sell our place and we'd move over to Burlington to be closer to them. Tears immediately came up in her eyes and she blurted out "PayPaw, NO!!! You can't sell your farm. I love it here. It's so peaceful and we'd have no place to go. Please PawPaw, don't sell it!"

We made our mind up then and there we were staying and I do believe when we're both gone someday that we're going to leave the place to her and her brother and sister. They can share it as a weekend home or one of them can decide they want to buy it from the other two and live in it permanently. But I have a feeling it will be in the family for a long time to come.

Yes, I think children should grow up in the country. Maybe our kids have it best of all because they can have both.

 

[digitS']

"Big Smoke!"

Yes, the country can be a much cleaner environment. I don't know that anything can trump that.

Good thoughts and memories. Thank you.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Also, around here, living in the country usually means knowing where a little creek is, where kids can catch crawdads, look for interesting rocks, make pools for the tadpoles and, of course, wade/swim.

 

[ninnymary]

JImWWhite, that was beautiful. I enjoyed seeing the love your grandkids have for both you and your farm.

Mary

 

[baymule]

My daughter was only ok with living out in a rural area, my son never wanted to see concrete. My daughter lives in a gated community and loves it, my son wants hundreds of acres around him. They were both raised in town and in the country. It depends on the individual I guess. I vote with my son!

 

[thistlebloom]

We have six beautiful grandkids, three girls and three boys. I know for a fact they can't wait to get to MamMaw's and PawPaw's when they come to visit. They all live in the surburbs. One lives up just to the north of Toronto, Ontario. Two live in the DC area and our closest three live in Burlington, NC. Obviously we see the three from Burlington more often than the others. Their Mommy drops them off at my office on Fridays which is about half way between there and here. They are always full of it when they get in the car and explode out of it when I finally get them home. We live way out in the country. We're seven miles from the nearest little town and about a half mile down a gravel lane off of a two lane country road. Quiet and peaceful, except maybe on the weekends when the kids come calling. Right off the bat everyone wants to collect eggs and let the hens out and play with the dogs. Then they want to pick tomatoes, cukes, squash and beans. In the spring and fall when I'm planting the garden I always wait for them so they can help. Each have their own boxes they can plant in whatever they want. They'll even bring seeds from home they bought at the store so they can plant them here. We always take them with us when we go up to my friend's orchard in the fall to pick apples and pick strawberries in the spring. This year they got to pick blueberries from our own bushes. I think they ate as many as they picked though. On Sunday afternoons when we take them back Olivia always cries because she doesn't want to leave. Oh, I almost forgot to mention there is a golf cart and they run all over the trails around us and the lane with it until the batteries are just about to run out. I think the place is a rural Disney Land to them.

One day a couple of years ago we were sitting around on the patio and a conversation came up with Halie, our oldest at 14 years. They had just recently moved to Burlington from Winston-Salem and we were talking about them being too far away now. I suggested that we sell our place and we'd move over to Burlington to be closer to them. Tears immediately came up in her eyes and she blurted out "PayPaw, NO!!! You can't sell your farm. I love it here. It's so peaceful and we'd have no place to go. Please PawPaw, don't sell it!"

We made our mind up then and there we were staying and I do believe when we're both gone someday that we're going to leave the place to her and her brother and sister. They can share it as a weekend home or one of them can decide they want to buy it from the other two and live in it permanently. But I have a feeling it will be in the family for a long time to come.

Yes, I think children should grow up in the country. Maybe our kids have it best of all because they can have both.

Bless Halies heart. That brought tears to my eyes at the strength of her ties to her grandparents and their home.
You are super blessed Jim, but you already know that.

Our kids were raised in a semi rural place before we moved here. The oldest has embraced a rural lifestyle more each year.
This year he's growing a few vegetables which warms my heart.
He lives in town right now, but longs to have his own patch of woods. Our youngest is slowly coming to appreciate living out of town, though he has always thought we were a little cracked to choose to live so far from a town.

I agree with Bay, personality has a lot to do with a persons preference.

I may never have grandkids, but if I do, I'm going to show them all the things I love about being out here.

 

[ninnymary]

Sometimes I wonder if it's the environment or maybe just us. Olivia always want to come over even on weekends. Mind you, she's been here all week for preschool! Then she doesn't want to leave. I have rules and she has to follow them even taking naps on weekends. When she's been out with us for the morning, I ask her if she wants to nap at her house or ours. Guess which one she picks?

This past weekend we went with our daughter and our 2 grandchildren to our cabin. There is a little lake that Olivia loves and wants to go swimming in every day. On the way home, my daughter asked her what the best part of going to the cabin was and she said ninny and papa.

Perhaps being with us and what we do with our children is more important than country or city?

Mary

 

[journey11]

Country kids are supposed to have less allergies too, so they say.

I agree on the part about isolation. We have a couple of kids in our area, but nobody my DD7 can really play with regularly. She doesn't play well by herself either and is usually on my heels most of the day wanting to help do what I do, but I guess that's not a bad thing really. She's learning a lot as we go. She plays with her little sis too, but there's a 4.5 year age difference.

It's hard for us to get into town or drive anywhere just for entertainment's sake since we live 19 miles from town and it's about a half-hour drive. I don't go to town unless I have shopping or appointments and then I have to pack everything into one trip, which can be exhausting with 2 small children in tow. Other than for church, I only make extra trips into town maybe once or twice a month. My sister and her family bought a farm 6 miles down the road from us, so when they get moved in out there, my girls will also have their cousin nearby to play with.

That's such an endearing story, @JimWWhite . Those will be such precious memories some day.

I grew up in town, but in a small town, so if we wandered off far enough we were in the country anyway. Both of my grandparents had farmland (not working farms per se) and I loved to wander the hills and woods and made my own fun and I think that has a lot to do with why I came back to that remote rural lifestyle. I lived in/near big cities in the years after high school/college, but it wasn't deliberately to get away from small town life. It was just something to do at the time. I didn't have any trouble adapting to it or being "street wise". I think I caught on pretty quickly and never got into any trouble. I certainly don't prefer crowds though.

 

[Smart Red]

DH and I both grew up in a medium-sized city. I loved and treasured the time I got to spend on the farm in Seymour or Oconto. My Oconto cousin always wanted to visit me in the big City.

I remember suggesting to the adults that Sandy and I trade families, but for some reason I was the only one who thought it a good idea. Hah! Parents!