If you live in the inner suburbs of a city with little kids you will find yourself asking why you don’t move to the suburbs or the country to raise your kids. Well Tim Keller concedes that the city is more expensive and more logistically complicated on the ‘front nine’, but then goes on to give 8 advantages to raising your kids in the city as opposed to the suburbs.
Have a listen and we hope you enjoy.
http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=26
5 Comments
Well Tim Keller concedes that the city is more expensive and more logistically complicated on the ‘front nine…
You are telling me!!
Excuse me while I go now to take my kids on a small errand to the shops. I’ll be back in 3 hours…
Hi Justin,
We are just days away from having our first out of the “front nine” so we will see if things start to get logistically less complicated??
Tim
Front Nine? I did listen to that message a while back. But not sure what Front Nine is. Remind me.
Are you moving?
Hi Justin,
“front nine” is the first 9 years of a child’s life, back 9, the second 9. His concession is that cities (and by implication) and inner suburbs are logistically more difficult in the first 9 years of a child’s life than if you were in the suburbs, but that they are easier in the second 9 years. That is 10-17 year olds do a lot of things, and in the suburbs they need to be driven, in the city and inner suburbs they get themselves there (walking and/or public transport).
I’ve heard a lot of people say the former, I’ve never heard anyone else articulate the latter, and the more I’ve reflected on it the more I think a lot of us make decisions about where to live “for the kids” which are actually decisions about where to live for young kids. I was encouraged to think more positively about living in the inner suburbs (which I think are more like the city than the outer suburbs) with reference to my kids.
Tim
Good call, Tim A. I wished people in New York City actually heeded the advice. They rarely do. The only people to raise kids here in the city are: A. Really Rich or B. Really poor.
They are people who earn millions and can afford a brownstone; or they are immigrants who can’t afford to give up cab driving, not if their kids are going to get into med school. There are exceptions — like Tim K and others — but they are far rarer than we’d all like. Tim lives on Roosevelt Island, which is technically Manhattan, but is far more kid friendly (front 9) than actual Manhattan.
Very few people actually buy the message to live in the cities. GOd bless you as you make a choice for Christ.