My husband and I moved into New York City after we graduated from college. Both of us were starting good jobs at large companies. I think like most ambitious people we wanted to be close to the action. We had a lot of friends on the same path and together we all grinded it out. We worked incredibly long hours, but the city life allowed us for gyms that were open 24/7 and bars that never closed. We were living the life by balancing work and having a personal life, at the same time enjoying the history of NYC when we could.
Fast forward, we now have 5 children. 4 of our little ones are under 2 years old and we are staying in New York City. Yes, I said 4 littles- besides our 13 year old, we have triplet girls that are almost 2 and a son that is one.
We LOVE raising our kids in NYC! Our kids are proud city kids and we are proud city parents. People always ask us when are we leaving the city now that we have 5 kids and we say never! Why do we have to? It is strange to us that people think city life is bad for children. We’ve been told children need a backyard, they need a safer community, and that the city is too busy for little ones. We say that is completely incorrect.
The city offers our family so much. We are surrounded by endless diversity and culture. Instead of running around a backyard, our littles run around the Museum of Modern Art(MOMA). Also, NYC is safe for those that know how to stay out of trouble. In fact, most kids by 13 years old are using the NYC subway system by themselves. Plus, New York City may seem like a big overwhelming place, but for those of us that live here it is a small tight community and you feel like you are surrounded by friends and family all the time. The hustle and bustle of Manhattan is part of its allure and we enjoy it. Our kids only know this fast paced environment and they are thriving in it! They are always on the go, always surrounded by people and know they know what the Empire State Building is.
Besides all of this, my husband and I love the fact that we work close to home. It gives us comfort knowing that we can run home whenever there is an emergency and a short commute to and from work means more time with the kids. I remember when I was on maternity leave with our youngest, I would take a walk to my husbands office and he would run out to see us. It was a quick 15 minutes but that couldn’t happen if we lived in the suburbs. We have the ability to be at any of our kids school’s in 10-15 minutes and that makes having so many kids work.
Another amazing thing about NYC is we walk everywhere. With 4 littles, you can imagine that getting in a car would be hard. Instead every park, class, doctor is in walking distance from our apartment. We never get in a car. We never have to. This definitely keeps everyone in shape without even trying! And since we walk we never deal with traffic. Life just seems so easy for our little ones.
John Steinbeck once wrote, “Once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” This is exactly how we feel, So we are staying put.
