Highline or the Highway: Suburbs Edition
The suburbs foster some of the warmest and most supportive environments for raising children. Everybody knows everybody, and there’s a sense of comfort in this transparency, that you might not feel in other settings.
Photo Credit: Rhea Bolar
New parents often desire to keep kids close to home, and thus close to their hearts. Suburbs provide shelter for children, so they can be raised in a ‘traditional climate’. Then, later in life, these children can explore the world unprotected, but only after their first decade of life has been adequately sheltered. This makes for an interesting argument in favor of the suburbs. Perhaps children aren’t ready to be exposed to the world at a young age, so easing them into everything is more beneficial than throwing them into the potential chaos of a city. The brain matures in increments, not all at once.
By easing children into the world, the suburbs have generated emotional ‘checkpoints’ along the path of maturity. From sixteenth birthdays, to getting a driver’s license, to high school graduation, this organized structure allows both parents and children to form unbreakable bonds as they approach a turning point in life. Cities often lack these communal celebrations, and therefore lack such emotional checkpoints.
A parent from the CBC explains, “But the biggest advantage to being in the 'burbs? That turned out to be one that, while considered, I hadn’t weighed properly: the support of family. If it takes a village, it doesn’t hurt being closer to said village...just a network to share love with our kids while exposing them to our culture, has been a very valuable advantage to suburban life.”
As children mature, they experience an urge for adventure. And in the suburbs, a close-knit community and emphasis on protection can map out the way.
Photo Credit: Rhea Bolar