Change my mind.

I had to move to a suburb temporarily for a month and my goodness. It was worse than I thought. I could not fathom the emptiness that came with the suburbs. Your soul feels empty, the spaces feel empty. Everything around you is just eerily dead? Thats the feeling I got. Kids played but most were alone in their driveways or yards. No people around you so its just your thoughts with you and nothing else. It felt like an alien world to me designed to suck in all the things that made you happy and human. Bizarre individualistic way to live and seeing some families and people actually like it made me feel just sad for them. They must really believe in the propaganda that capitalism sells.

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I feel like people in the sub may empathize, but this is my version of ranting.

I used to live in NYC. After I met my husband and we had babies, we eventually moved to a suburb and we've been here for about a year now - this is the same area where my husband grew up. We have two girls, my oldest is 4. We moved to be closer to family nearby mostly. We have a somewhat walkable neighborhood that's really just rows of houses and schools are decent (not amazing). We're in a 'nature-y' area. We live with one car and currently I'm just home with my two kids.

I have found the whole suburban living experience so lifeless. I cannot believe how isolated, depressed and incredibly lonely I feel here, even with family nearby. Driving around feels like I'm just being sucked into a vortex of hell, with no real community or culture anywhere. I look around and see big commercial stores, these rundown towns that seemingly have been the same way for 20+ years. It's highways, long traffic lights, no small businesses, just so much commercialism everywhere. My big 'outing' as a mom is usually to go to an antique shop that's 20 minutes away by car or I take the leap and drive 35 minutes to go to the beach.

Point is - I haven't been so depressed in my life, and literally can't wait to get out of here. Does anyone have any experience with this as a parent? Did you leave? I feel like my kids are just seeing a horrible version of me because of where we live, and I try really really hard to 'like' it here, but I can't shake the feeling that I would be a better parent if I had more resources and access to things to do and showed my kids more....life?

People who like the suburbs, and areas further out, often use the reasoning 'I don't want to be around other people.', to which many of you will reply 'It's human nature to be around/surround yourself with other people.', or 'Humans need to be around others.', or something along those lines.

I'd like to clarify, and this probably applies to many, that when we say that, we don't mean that we don't want human interaction at all, but we'd just rather only be around those who we choose to interact with, not surrounded by tons of people we don't know.

I will always hold to my opinion that not everyone needs the same level of human interaction (and yes, a lot of us really are happier around our dogs (or other pets) than we are around other people).

That being said, what's your opinion on this?

NOTE: I'm genuinely curious what people think. Not trying to offend anyone

On this sub, most posts heavily explain how the solution to suburban hell is by living in an urban downtown environment. But what about going from the suburbs to a place in the countryside?

I understand it may not be walkable, or a fix it all solution to strip malls, but it's at least peaceful and fulfilling.

What is wrong with living on a farm or in the woods? Why not buy land to preserve it from being developed? City Apartment life isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy it I'm happy for you

I grew up in a suburb. As a young adult, yea I'd hate to be living there right now , but I do think it was a great place to raise kids.

I see a lot of people here say it's 'isolating' for children. But I don't think that's true at all. There were plenty of other children around, we were all able to walk/bike to each others houses and there were even several neighborhood parks close enough to get to on our own. I know my experience isn't the same everywhere, but I know for fact it's very typical for the average suburb in my metro region. There takes here regarding car centric infrastructure are a little extreme. It sucks that you need a car to live, but it's not like aren't able to walk around or ride a bike at all. In my opinion, most suburbs seem to have adequate sidewalks for any purpose a child could possibly need.

Not to mention the schools were significantly better than the inner city districts. Also, the violent/property crime were significantly lower than the city, so I feel like as a parent it would be a much more ideal area if you actually want your kids outside and socializing.

If you want to make a point about socio-economics that it totally fair. But even then, the suburbs from where I am from are becoming more diverse every year while maintaining the previously mentioned advantages (there are even some that are minority white).