Raising Kids in a Small Town

[Game_Day_Sports]

I just came back from a 2 week work/vacation trip. I had client visits to make but took the family with me and made some vacation days in between. One of those was to visit my sister-in-law in a town called New Buffalo, MI population 1,800. The nearest "city" is Michigan City, population 31,000 and it is about 10 miles away.

In reality, Chicago is just over an hour away but it might as well be 7 days away for people in the town. There is a casino which is essentially the sole existence for the town.

My wife was pretty upset in seeing the town realizing that there were no opportunities for her sister to get out of the town as there are no employers other than restaurants, 1 grocery store, and a couple of shops. It is one of those subsistence towns where the money just flows in circles among the residents and never gets anybody anywhere. They might as well barter.

The biggest thing that bothered me were her kids. These kids don't know anything outside of their town and I asked my wife, what she thought kids in that town did on a Friday night. There wasn't a church so no church related distractions. No movie theater, no bowling alley, no miniature golf, no big parking lot to just hang out in and bs. It snows a ton so skateboarding is at a minimum and there are barely enough kids to form a sports team let alone a whole league.

All there is to do for a teenager is to smoke weed, drink and have sex. Now as a kid, those are all great past times, but as a parent, you definitely don't want that to be your kid's Friday night. I didn't know how to really say anything, but man it bothered the heck out of me knowing that they basically are taking their own issues and passing them on down to the next generation because they stuck these kids in such a small town, there is no other choice.

My wife and I talked about having them come stay with us for a few weeks next summer so they can see there is more out there than a set of railroad tracks and a casino.

 

[UCFhonors]

That's a good idea Chris.

On a side note, your description is what I envision when people talk about college towns.

 

[1ofTheseKnights]

10 mi to Michigan City (& presumably regular hangout type shit church etc) is nothing. Must not know a lot of country folk that's a normal distance to get in "town" prolly not there but there's plenty of well off living in what stupid brainwashed people would think of as "poor people" accommodations 5-10 acres in the "country" 20-30 minute drive to nearest gas station. Just the way some like it.

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

I'm 8 miles from "town". It takes 10 minutes to get to there, not a big deal at all. Michigan City is where the kids go. My dad grew up in a town similar to that in northern Wisconsin. Everything revolved around the paper mill. There's tons of stuff to do in small towns like that. It's all outside in the woods/lakes. The closest "city"/Walmart to them is 2 hours I believe.

Coke is correct, most of the rich people live out in my area, the country club is out there and there are tons of half - $1 million homes/properties. Throw a 2500 sq ft house on 5 acres in horse country and it's worth 4-500k.

 

[80'sKnight]

This is really being discussed? Haven't you heard of the scourge of modern utes? You can be smack dab in the city and those kids are doing the same thing the country kids are doing- TV, video games, phone games etc etc. (said with some sarcasm). Sorry, but I lived in Clarks Summit, just outside Scrotum/Scranton, the movie theater closed down 1 year after we moved there. 3 TV channels and ESPN was just created- where the most exciting thing on was Australian Rules football. There was nothing to do, so we did things anyway! If their kids and kids in the area aren't doing things it's because their dull anyway and can't be bothered making things up themselves. Ever heard of sports? You don't need a church, after-school activity board, Boys/Girls Clubs (great things by the way), you just need a ball. If they aren't doing that, then it's not the area that made them boring. The others are right, we were middle class and the poorest in the neighborhood. That's where the richies go.

Just my opinion, but I'm grateful I didn't have all those things you wish they had. If I had movie theaters or whatever amusements, I wouldn't have been forced to create. If I wasn't creative I would never have been able to happy. We did occasionally go to theaters, museums etc, but day to day we had to create.

 

[MACHater02]

Clark Summit is nice compared to some of the neighboring cities. Kids grow up thinking struggling through life is the norm. Producing meth is seen as more viable than college.

 

[fabknight]

Damn! I didn't know it but I'm fvcking rich!!

 

[crambone]

This is really being discussed? Haven't you heard of the scourge of modern utes? You can be smack dab in the city and those kids are doing the same thing the country kids are doing- TV, video games, phone games etc etc. (said with some sarcasm). Sorry, but I lived in Clarks Summit, just outside Scrotum/Scranton, the movie theater closed down 1 year after we moved there. 3 TV channels and ESPN was just created- where the most exciting thing on was Australian Rules football. There was nothing to do, so we did things anyway! If their kids and kids in the area aren't doing things it's because their dull anyway and can't be bothered making things up themselves. Ever heard of sports? You don't need a church, after-school activity board, Boys/Girls Clubs (great things by the way), you just need a ball. If they aren't doing that, then it's not the area that made them boring. The others are right, we were middle class and the poorest in the neighborhood. That's where the richies go.

Just my opinion, but I'm grateful I didn't have all those things you wish they had. If I had movie theaters or whatever amusements, I wouldn't have been forced to create. If I wasn't creative I would never have been able to happy. We did occasionally go to theaters, museums etc, but day to day we had to create.

Is Scranton really "The Electric City"?

 

[Game_Day_Sports]

New buffalo makes Clark summit look like new York city. I have been to both in the last six months.

And no this is not where the rich folk live. This isn't country cool. This is falling down wood houses.

I guess I wasn't being clear. I am talking about 14-18 year Olds. You know the prime screw up your life years.

And by comparison for the northeast pa person Michigan city is similar in size to Nanticoke