Guest Blogger

While we search for our new SweetMama editor, us non-mom editors are tackling notions of family and parenting from our own unique view. Today, Emma ponders the benefits of country-raised kids vs. city-raised kids.

I need your help. I'm trying to decide if I should raise my future fictional children in the country or in the city. While this isn't really a pressing matter (still on the to-procreate-or-not-to-procreate fence), it's something I may have to decide down the road.

I'm a country kid. My boyfriend is a city boy. I rode horses. He rode the subway. I picked fresh fruit from the orchard. He picked up pasta from the Italian grocer. I went to a one-room schoolhouse. He went to an inner-city mega-school. So, when we're talking raising kids, which way is better?

When I heard that one of my city-born coworkers had gone to an "arts" school, where she did academics in the morning and had dance class all afternoon, I turned green with envy. But I'm sure the reverse would happen if I told her how I got to bottle feed our so-cute-it-hurts newborn lambs each spring. There are opportunities for learning in both situations, but the lessons — and teachers — are very different.

With the allure of higher education, engaging jobs and vibrant nightlife, I think that it's easier for country-raised kids to move to the city later in life (like myself), but harder for urban adults to see the appeal — and understand the reality — of country living (like my boyfriend).

Seeing a calf being born may lose its magic when you're 28 but to an eight-year-old it's the coolest thing in the world...especially when you get to name the newborn (FYI, we named him Starlight).

So, as I said, mamas, I need your help. Do I raise my kids rural or do I raise them urban?

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