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What Makes a Town Family-Friendly?

This entry was posted on May 22nd, 2007 by Tim Ludwig

Morgan, one of our Parentographers, recently wrote on her blog about the things that make a town family-friendly.  Here’s her list:

  • Good paying jobs (both skilled, low skilled, and professional levels)
  • High-speed Internet more readily available
  • Adequate health care with doctors that are available more than once or twice a week
  • Parks with shade and toddler equipment
  • Fresh(er) produce in the grocery stores
  • Sidewalks! (what a concept!)
  • Educational activities that aren’t through the YMCA or are low cost
  • Kid friendly events included in festivals (any ideas?)
  • Kid friendly menus at restaurants (Any ideas on particular items? I’m still trying to compile those.)
  • Lifeguards at the beaches

    • What would you include on your list?

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    5 Responses to “What Makes a Town Family-Friendly?”

    1. norma hirsh Says:
      May 23rd, 2007 at 6:56 am

      We recently spent 5 days in Richmond, Va and were hard pressed to find activites for our 22 month old Granddaughter. The few interesting sites included the Botanical Gardens for its mini zoo and the fabulous Childrens Museum. The town is not easily maneuvered and our hotel was ill prepared to advise and direct us. Perhaps we asked the wrong people?

      Our best guess was to leave town and drive 1/2 hour away to Williamsburg which was the best (and only) reason to visit to that part of Virginia. Sorry to insult you, Virginians.

    2. Angela Says:
      May 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 am

      The county we moved to meets all of those criteria and then some, with one exception: good jobs. Housing is also quite expensive.

      But it’s a fabulous place to visit/raise kids. Lots of kid groups, parks, farmer’s markets, libraries. No smog or traffic (this was our daily experience in SoCal, ugh) and you can leave your car unlocked most of the time. San Luis Obispo is in the process of building a brand-new children’s museum, too.

      Here’s one of my favorite sites, if you’re interested in visiting the central coast: http://www.centralcoastkids.com/

    3. Marykz Says:
      May 23rd, 2007 at 7:33 am

      For the kid-friendly things at festivals: our local town festival had a string of *free* things for kids to do: face painting, easy carnival games, and the ever popular moon bounce. The moon bounce can be tricky with toddlers, but this group set aside special times for toddlers only.

      They also had *clean* bathroom facilities.

      For the kid friendly menu ideas: our kid LOVES the veggies and ranch dip that you can sometimes get instead of french fries. We are lucky we have a veggie loving kid- and very happy these restaurants offer them: Red Lobster, Cheeburger Cheeburger; Silver Diner. Montgomery County MD has recently banned the use of trans-fats, so hopefully fewer fried items will be popping up on kid menus.

      for the educational ideas: (free or low cost) remember to check the local town paper. events at the libraries, parks, wildlife centers and public schools are often announced there. Toddler library hours, wildlife animal programs, kid nature walks etc are routinely run here in Silver Spring, MD.

      For a few major cities, GoCityKids.com lists great educational/ fun things to do in that city every week. museum programs, parks, etc are emailed to you every Thursday for weekend planning.

      I think a family-friendly town should also be parent friendly with moms (or Dads) groups, playgroups, mother’s day out programs etc. I would like to see more information on obtaining reliable babysitting or drop-in daycare options.

      for the health care- I think pediatric drop-in centers with night time hours are essential. not for routine care, but for when you really need that doctor at 11 pm and can’t get into your regular doc for a day or so. 24 hour pharmacies are important too…

      and I really Wish our neighborhood had sidewalks. we are on a low-traffic street, but there’s no place for the kid to practice riding her bike safely.

      Thanks for opening an interesting discussion!

    4. Amberlynn Says:
      May 23rd, 2007 at 8:13 am

      I think you’ve got a great list. The only thing I would add is affordable housing. We love everything about our otherwise family-friendly hometown of Portland, but wonder if we’ll ever get to be home owners…

    5. Ken Zirkel Says:
      June 18th, 2007 at 9:09 am

      Pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly streets top my list.

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