[blparent] Baby on the Way! Now, Where to Live?

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

Hi, Allison.  Congratulations to you and Darrell.  Best of luck to you on 
your journey into parenthood.

If you really enjoy your urban lifestyle, I don't think you need to consider 
moving to the burbs just yet.  Proximity to schools won't be a consideration 
till your baby is old enough for kindergarten, which is age five, unless 
special needs come into play or you do early preschool as daycare.  A yard 
is a nice thing to have--I'm leaving my condo for a house with a yard this 
weekend, in fact, and I can't wait, but my daughter is seven years old. 
When your child is very young, you will be supervising his or her play 
closely on playgrounds and at parks.  That means following him or her step 
for step on play structures, pushing him or her on the swings, waiting ath 
the bottom of slides, sitting in the sandbox, etc.  The good thing about 
public play spaces is that your child will get social contact with other 
kids, and it will take you out of your comfort zone and put you in touch 
with other parents.  A nice, quiet suburban home can be quite isolating. 
Taking kids to their own yard every day instead of to local parks will get 
boring real fast, and they'll be asking to go to the parks anyway--or so 
I've heard from the yard owners.

Juggling a cane or a dog, a diaper bag, a baby, and other accessories can be 
daunting, but that doesn't change whether you take a bus or paratransit or 
hire a driver.  It's all a matter of having a good support system, and 
getting out, whether you are in a house in the suburbs or an apartment 
downtown.  You'll want to be near at least some bus access if you are used 
to that, so you don't become imprisoned in your home.  Even if your fiance 
pitches in a lot around the house, the bulk of childcare still falls upon 
moms in this day and age.  You'll probably find, especially at first, that 
you don't get out and about quite as much as you did before the baby came, 
no matter where you live, but you'll bounce back.

Good luck,
Jo Elizabeth

"The Bright Side of Darkness"
is my newly published novel,
available on Kindle and in paperback at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Side-Darkness-J-Pinto/dp/151234494X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434817370&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Bright+Side+of+Darkness

-----Original Message----- 
From: Allison via blparent
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2015 5:30 PM
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
Cc: Allison
Subject: [blparent] Baby on the Way! Now, Where to Live?

Hi Everyone,

First a quick intro since, while I've been reading this list for a while, I 
haven't posted much yet. I did write a couple of times about ovulation kits 
and pregnancy tests a while back. I'm happy to say that our attempts with 
ovulation kits were a success, and my fiance and I are expecting our first 
child this January! We're really excited!

My fiance, Darrell,  and I are both blind and currently live in the Phoenix 
area. We have an apartment with a lease that will be up in September, and 
we're trying to decide where we want to live next. What we're finding so far 
is that, most of the houses that we can afford, are further from public 
transportation than we're used to. We love our current location, but we are 
looking for more space for when baby arrives. We went house-hunting last 
weekend, found one house that had a lot of space, a yard, was in our price 
range, and It was near one bus stop... sorta. We almost made an offer, but 
Darrell and I came to a hard realization. We're not sure we're quite ready 
to give up our urban lifestyle in order to become suburban home-owners just 
yet. We're willing to do it if it turns out best for raising a family, yet 
we're not sure if that's really necessary.

So I'm coming to this list to learn from your collective experience as blind 
parents. What did you find was and was not really important when choosing a 
place to live with very young children? As a first time parent, I realize 
that I don't know what I'll need in terms of location. It's entirely 
possible that, the things I think are important in a location, aren't at all 
necessary, and there may be other truly important considerations that 
haven't even crossed my mind yet. So here are some questions that I'd like 
to bounce off of you guys...

When you had babies or small children, did you find that you rode buses or 
light rails often? Was it more convenient to take cabs, paratransit, or 
hired drivers over other transit options? What is too long of a walk with a 
small child? Is a back yard a must, or is it more important to live near a 
park/playground? How helpful is it to be in walking or bus distance of 
restaurants, stores, or doctor offices? Will climbing stairs while juggling 
a cane, baby, and accessories eventually make us crazy? What of schools? 
Should I be factoring in proximity to schools if our baby isn't even born 
yet? What other factors am I not considering but are important?

Knowing others' experiences will likely be helpful to us when deciding what 
location may work best for our family. Any feedback or suggestions from you 
all are appreciated!

Thanks,
Allison, Darrell, and Baby





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