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

[Briley O'Connor]

Hi there. First of all, congratulations! New babies are very exciting.
As for where to live, the answer is that there is no right answer. That is probably not super helpful, but it is true. All families are different, and people raise babies in extremely urban areas like New York City, and extremely suburban areas. You should take what matters to you most, and factor that into where you live. As far as public transportation, it is completely doable with baby, and frankly, sometimes I wished I lived somewhere that was easier to access with public transportation.  If you have the right gear, it can work out just fine. If you decide to live somewhere a little further out, and there are definitely pluses to that, my suggestion is to find a driver. That is what we do at present. We live in an area that is walkable with the stroller, but for any errands and such we hire a driver. It has worked out very well for us.  For me, I just like to be within walking distance of "stuff". It doesn't have to be super useful stuff like a grocery store, since I likely would get a car home anyway with groceries. But, I like knowing that I am your something to do. Not everyone feels that way. The main thing is to be realistic. Don't tell yourself that you're going to walk a mile to a bus stop with the baby if deep down you really know you are not going to do that. 

The final thing to consider is employment. If your fiancé works from home, for example, you may want somewhere with a separate office space. Babies can definitely get loud and be a distraction when your partner works from home. My husband works from home, and even though there are some places to live more convenient to things we use via public transportation, they are too small for our needs.  If you're looking to settle somewhere very long term, thinking about where your child will have a space of his own to play is also important. For example, we live in a very old style townhouse at the moment. While the space is OK, the layout is not super efficient. When he is mobile, I would not really be able to be in the kitchen and leave him to his own devices in the living room. That is important to me to be able to get to him quickly. Other people it may not be.  Keep in mind to that, if you are renting, you can try a space out for a little while and then see what works for you. I, personally, would not be comfortable buying something until I knew what my life with the new baby look like. It definitely changes things 100%.  

Best of luck to you.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 23, 2015, at 7:30 PM, Allison via blparent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>        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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