Why I embrace suburbia - Part 2

Have you guessed it by now?  How this girl growing up on three acres of hillside became the mom living behind sidewalks and bike paths, with neighborhood associations and fees?

I'll bet you wouldn't be too surprised if I said it was all due to my kids.

It didn't start out that way.  Our first house was the house in a new town that we could afford.  It was actually downtown rather than suburban, but it was a small downtown in a little place called Plymouth, MI, just far enough from the big city of Detroit.

We wondered then why the realtors were talking so much about the great schools.  What did we care at the time?  We were a good five years from having our first child then, and still amazed that a mortgage company was actually letting us buy a house just based on the promise of a job for Darrell. Yes, folks, I can trace the housing bubble/mortgage crisis back to 1993, when a signed letter from Ford was enough to get two 22-year-olds into a house.

So, here it is, the reasons I've come to love suburbia:

• Great schools. Do you hear about the generally really good schools in the cities or out in the country?  No, they're typically in the 'burbs, where taxes per square foot are high, but give us our money's worth in terms of a great education for our kids.  I've found this to be true in at least five states.
•  A ready-made supply of friends (for the kids).  I grew up with exactly three neighborhood friends. And I was lucky - there was no one near the age of my little sister.  My kids have always been able to walk down the street to find a friend near their age.  That doesn't mean I won't drive them across town to meet up with a good friend, but it's nice that I don't always have to.  
• A ready-made supply of friends (for me).  Thank goodness.  See my post about girlfriends to understand how important this has become to me, a slightly reformed so shy I was afraid of my own shadow kind of girl.  Oh, and being able to car pool now and then can save a mom's sanity as well.
• Amenities like a neighborhood pool and such.  I wouldn't have a pool in my own back yard, but I love having one just down the street.
• Biking/walking paths.  I've only recently discovered what I've been missing out on.  I lived in a great neighborhood for running in Lexington.  I live in one twice as good now due to abundant trails.
• A wide choice of homes.  Try finding your dream house on a few country acres without having it custom built.  Good luck with that.  Try finding your dream house in several neighborhoods with hundreds of houses each.  Can you guess where you'll find it first?
• Location.  Location.  Location.  At least that's what the realtors say.  It's never taken us more than two months to sell a house, in just about every economy imaginable.  We've done it six times, probably more than hundreds of newer realtors.  That happens by carefully choosing a home in a neighborhood with good resale value.  Well, that and you have to take care of your home (but that could be an entirely separate blog post).

So, yeah, I guess I've learned how to live closer to my neighbors.  And I've learned to love it.  At the same time, I suspect that once the kids are out of school and we finally settle down (ha!), it may be on a little more property somewhere. We'll see.  After all, I've still never lived outside of the Eastern time zone.  Maybe another adventure is yet to come...