Country Living vs. City Living
Pros and Cons
Thoughts to ponder when deciding to move
City Life
Have you ever wondered what the advantages and disadvantages are to living in the city vs. the country? I can tell you that there are remarkable differences both good and bad.
Living in the city has the advantages of close neighbors. There are more people nearby to watch your house for suspicious people, close neighbors to help in the event you need it quickly, and the opportunity to make new friends. If you live in an area with four seasons, it's easier to get to where you need to be in the event of a snowstorm. Your road or nearby main roads are usually plowed sooner, so you have the ability to get to work, store or to the doctor.
In the event of a house fire or an emergency such as immediate medical or police assistance is needed, you will usually receive it sooner than those that live in the country since everything is in close proximity.
Disadvantages to living in the city is the noise level is usually higher than in the country. Especially when inconsiderate people insist on forcing everyone within a mile radius of their car, to listen to the deep booming of the bass from their stereo. You will hear sirens coming and going, people screaming and kids laughing.
Privacy is also usually an issue if you are surrounded by close neighbors. I've seen many houses that are barely ten feet apart. I would think you could almost hear your neighbors breathe, living that close to another house. I would also not enjoy looking out my window to see inside someone else's house. That's just too close for me. Others may find comfort in having extremely close neighbors.
Traffic in the city is always more congested than the country. It's a constant stop and go at all the stop signs and lights while driving. There are more pedestrians to be aware of on the sidewalks and riding bicycles.
Country Life
Living in the country also has it's advantages and disadvantages. While comfort-wise, the country is more "home" to me, safety-wise, it's a different story. The comforts of living in the country is the peacefulness of it. It is usually much more quiet, unless it's farming season. The roaring of tractors driving by, along with the farming equipment plowing fields is something we get used to. We hear the birds chirping and some yet unknown animal noises at night. The wildlife, such as watching the deer run across the fields or our yard is so relaxing. In the country, you never know what kind of critter you may find in your yard, on your porch or in your barn.
We have found raccoons on our porch, a large turtle in our yard, pheasants calling for their mates in the tall weeds and many frogs in our pond. We love to watch the wild turkeys, geese and deer search in the fields for food. We hate it when the deer decide our apple trees should be their next meal or stray cats stop by to snack on our cat's food. We have a large variety of bird houses where bluebirds, swallows and sparrows nest. We are visited by beautiful yellow finches, robins, hummingbirds, redwing blackbirds. woodpeckers, cranes and doves. We hear the geese honking and ducks quacking as they constantly fly from pond to pond. We watch vultures circle above searching for their next meal.
On the downside of country living, we are not close to anything. In the event of an emergency, it generally takes longer for help to arrive. For instance, we had a house fire in the middle of the night a few years ago. It took about 15 minutes for our volunteer fire fighters to arrive, which considering the circumstances of where they were (home in bed), had to go to get their equipment, then to find us in the dark, they did a great job. Luckily, we all got out of the home safely before they arrived.
If you want a variety of stores to shop at, you will usually have to travel further than if you lived in the city. There are no shopping malls, big box stores, or specialty stores in the country. Purchasing gas could also be a challenge. We live outside of a small town, which is 15 miles to the nearest large city. Gas prices are always higher in our little nearby town than in the large city. Also, if you run out of gas in the country, you can't walk two blocks to the nearest gas station with a gas can in hand.
In the winter, the country roads, unless they are a main highway, are usually the last to get plowed. If you are lucky enough to live across the road from open fields, you will also have to deal with a lot of blowing and drifting of snow that can sometimes make the road impassable until the snow plows arrive.
Now that I've pointed out some of the pros and cons, which do you prefer?
