Boys and the Beach....

My Dh grew up just down the road from a beach and spent much of his childhood in the water doing various water sports- surfing, waterskiing, boating, swimming and just generally having fun.
He has now moved away from the beach and now that we have the 2 boys of our own- has become obsessed with bringing them up near water.
i grew up a good 1.5hrs drive from the nearest surf beach, so never really experienced 'beach culture' the way that he did (except on various summer holidays i guess). i am happy with where we live (same area as i grew up in), but dh is becoming increasingly restless and is convinced that as our boys get older they will become bored, and doesn't want them to miss out on being surfie boys ;)
how important do you think it is for boys to be near the water? would you uproot your family to be near the beach? any experiences?

Boys girls or otherwise i would definitely uproot my family to be near the ocean. But i think i have salt water in my veins. ;) We've always lived near the ocean, it's killing me being so far away.
I don't think kids who don't live near the ocean miss out, and i think your boys will be fine wherever you live. But when you've grown up with that lifestyle and loved it so much i can definitely understand why he wants that for his boys.

you wouldn't be so positive if you knew which particular beach he was talking about

If it's in NSW it is a TERRIBLE idea. :p

Hun, my boys do just fine not living near the beach. But I guess it's what you are used to. My BIL grew up by the beach and wouldn't move away for anything, so I can see how it's different if you are used to something. Is there anywhere you could live that would be a compromise?

yes this is definitley a compromise. i have said that i will only do 'beach' if it is a small coastal/ country town type place. definitely not near a big city. i'm sort of open to the idea, i quite like the idea of moving to a nice small community. i guess i just don't place as much importance on being near water as he does, but like you say, i guess it's just whatever you're used to.

We are about to make the move

hubby grew up there too and love sthe beach lifestyle etc
I love the beach too and the thought of moving now has me all excited except for moving away from my family :(
But we can't affrd to buy here
We can there
We are 45 minutes in good traffic to the beach
There we can walk to the beach
Here I cant get DS is a playgroup (too full) or Preschool / Daycare of any kind
There they have several cheap playgroups and preschools with availabilities

It would be a great place to raise a family
We are up 4 it
have you thought about it anymore?
Where is it BTW?

Ok, well neither of us grew up near the beach. (Dubbo! so not even close! lol)
I always wanted to live on the beach. Always loved visiting Grandma here.
When I was 17 I convinced mum we needed to move. DH came too. I love it, he doesn't. He doesn't get the whole 'water' thing, lol.

We've done both since having the kids. Bush & beach. I do love both lifestyles, but I choose beach for my kids. This way they have the best of both worlds. They can just go hang at the beach, go for a surf, etc. But at the same time, we go out to mum & dad's, 40 minutes away & ride motorbikes & have bonfires too. They also spend time out west & go yabbying etc.

We live in a beautiful little coastal town a bit south of Coffs. Small community, but a holiday village, so there are people always coming & going. There so many things here for the kids to do. Nippers, athletics, surfing. During the christmas holidays the AOC (I think, we call them the God squad) come & set up a camp on the cricket oval for the whole 6 weeks & have a huge range of activities for all the kids to participate in. You don't have to be part of their camp, & its all free.

I'm so happy here. You have to be on your toes, because there are always strangers in town, due to it being a holiday town, but its also pretty close knit :)
West will always be home to me though. It is me iykwim.

I grew up without a beach nearby and did just fine. I'm however currently living 15 mins from a gorgeous beach now and have to say I am loving it, as is DS. If we ever move away I may have a hard time too, it's so nice to have.

thanks for all your input

mum2 ramone- the kind of area we would be looking in would be around gerringong- near nowra sort of area south of sydney.

i'm still not sure how i feel about it all

Ginger I know how your DH feels. I grew up in a 'surfie beach loving family' we always lived on the coast, in fact I think I was practically raised on the beach! My dad is still a surfer! While my DH is hopeless in water, never went to the pool let alone the beach when he was a child. If we could afford a coastal property here we would move in an instant, I love taking M to the beach and she loves it too. I think I could definately move to the coast for the sake of the kids, its such a fun outdoors lifestyle. I think it would be great for the boys.

I don't really get the beach (I'm not fond of sand or sunburn) but I do get wanting to move to somewhere that your children can have a more active, outdoorsy lifestyle and be part of a smaller community.

:

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I do get wanting to move to somewhere that your children can have a more active, outdoorsy lifestyle and be part of a smaller community.

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yep for me this is what it is about...summed up perfectfly onyx...