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Readers Letters

Print Email Small town family

Swapping the big city for a smaller town is one of the best moves we have made so far.

Ntombikayise Baepi My family and I are big city people (from Gauteng) who moved to the smaller town of Port Elizabeth 2 years ago for all kinds of reasons and so far we love it.

Finding schools for the older children was not easy. We had recommendations from all manner of people (mostly colleagues). We checked out the schools that had been recommended and followed our instincts. This was not ideal, but because we had no family or close friends in PE, we had to listen to advice we got and make choices on the schools without any personal knowledge of their reputations or their environment. In the end the first impressions plus proximity to home were the determining factors, which has worked out well so far.

The only issue of concern which our children have raised is the limited diversity in their schools. Coming from a big city and having been in culturally diverse schools all their lives, the kids have noticed that number black people at their current schools is much smaller. More worrying for us as parents is the fact that the attitudes do not seem to have changed too dramatically in the past few years. It seems that school cliques are still formed along colours lines and our kids are now experiencing for the first time the kind of attitudes and stereotypes that lack of true diversity fosters.

This is not an issue that the kids have only noticed at school but whenever we go out we now make jokes about being the token darkies at the restaurant or wherever.

That being said, the small town environment means that the malls are smaller and there aren’t as many of them and therefore our daughter is bored of them already. Thank heavens, her mall rat days are finally over! She used to spend every weekend at the mall with her friends no matter what.

There have been a lot of other positive changes which we all enjoy and appreciate, like the fact that the older kids walk home from school and they love this because they are home after 2pm instead of after 5pm. There’s so much more time to play and do homework.

They also don’t watch as much TV or play as many TV games as before; we’ve taken their TV away to force them to find other more physical games to play outside because the environment is perfect for it. Also as life on the coast in more relaxed, we are generally home early enough to get in an hour or so at the beach with the family before supper, or a run or walk.

Three things we miss though: the friends and family we left behind, the Jozi summer weather, which would be so perfect for the beach (the wind in PE can be a challenge especially at this time of the year) and the night life (for us adults of course).

Have you lived in big or small towns? How do you think family life compares in them?

Ntombikayise Baepi is almost 30, and a step-mom to two girls Neo, 17, and Kgomotso, 5, and a boy, Kagiso, 12. She’s been in their lives for almost 3 years and things are just getting interesting.

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Leigh

11/21/2008 8:35 AM

My husband and I relocated to Grahamstown from Cape Town 7 years ago. I hated it! No choice, no malls, shops close at 1pm on a Saturday. Then we had kids, the schools are good, the town is relatively safe, the community wonderful and warm. Now, I love it! I would have to think twice about moving back to a big city.

Malowe

10/31/2008 8:42 AM

I'm so envious, because your situation allows you to have the best of both worlds. Like I wrote, if only I could I move the rest of my family to the coast, life would be bliss.

Sumanda

10/30/2008 3:07 PM

Ntombikayise, I've got to agree, we live in a small town, half an hours drive from Gauteng. We really enjoy the small town living where we have space for the kids to play. They also attend a local creche that keeps all kinds of farm animals as part of the skool. We're still close enought to the big city if we need any of its conveniences, but try to stay away most of the time. At night we listen to the jackels calling to each other, pure bliss.

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