In recent weeks, my husband and I have decided to put our home up for sale and move to a community that is very different from the one we are used to. As opposed to an area with mostly newer homes and people from a very similar walk of life as us, the community we are moving to is a smaller, more rural town with a pretty good mixture of demographics.
The home we plan to move into has room to grow and more land to play in, which is much-needed for our family of now-10.
We are excited for this new adventure and welcome the change. However, there is one thing about this move that concerns us. No, it's not that we will go from a new build to a 50-year-old home. It's not even that we will be moving into a community where we know nobody and that our children will need to make new friends. Those things are exciting to us.
The thing that is of major concern to us is athletics.
To some, this may sound silly, but as a family of several athletes who excel in sports, it is a big part of our current life and will be for years to come.
As former collegiate athletes, my husband and I want to be able to give our children the opportunities we had, by giving them the best training so they can hone their craft.
We have one son in particular who will soon be the age for high school. He has spent the past six years playing competition soccer and has excelled beyond our expectations. We want to keep him on the same track so he will be in the right place for college scouts because this has been a goal of his since he was a little boy.
In our decision to move, we debated between an area with bigger schools with proven athletic track records and a smaller town with a little less on its athletic resume. We've wondered if a smaller town would help our oldest and subsequent children stand out, or if playing for a more competitive high school would draw more attention.
On the other hand, we worried about them getting lost in a sea of athletes at a big school, limiting their opportunities to play, whereas a smaller school may allow for more playing time and even the chance to be multiple-sport athletes.
We've even wondered if we are overthinking this and if we shouldn't focus so much on athletics. We've thought that maybe athletics are trivial and won't matter in the big scope of things.
Even so, we can't stop wondering what to do. Should athletics be a concern when choosing a place to live? Or is it trivial?
I'd really like to know what you think.
The home we plan to move into has room to grow and more land to play in, which is much-needed for our family of now-10.
We are excited for this new adventure and welcome the change. However, there is one thing about this move that concerns us. No, it's not that we will go from a new build to a 50-year-old home. It's not even that we will be moving into a community where we know nobody and that our children will need to make new friends. Those things are exciting to us.
The thing that is of major concern to us is athletics.
To some, this may sound silly, but as a family of several athletes who excel in sports, it is a big part of our current life and will be for years to come.
As former collegiate athletes, my husband and I want to be able to give our children the opportunities we had, by giving them the best training so they can hone their craft.
We have one son in particular who will soon be the age for high school. He has spent the past six years playing competition soccer and has excelled beyond our expectations. We want to keep him on the same track so he will be in the right place for college scouts because this has been a goal of his since he was a little boy.
In our decision to move, we debated between an area with bigger schools with proven athletic track records and a smaller town with a little less on its athletic resume. We've wondered if a smaller town would help our oldest and subsequent children stand out, or if playing for a more competitive high school would draw more attention.
On the other hand, we worried about them getting lost in a sea of athletes at a big school, limiting their opportunities to play, whereas a smaller school may allow for more playing time and even the chance to be multiple-sport athletes.
We've even wondered if we are overthinking this and if we shouldn't focus so much on athletics. We've thought that maybe athletics are trivial and won't matter in the big scope of things.
Even so, we can't stop wondering what to do. Should athletics be a concern when choosing a place to live? Or is it trivial?
I'd really like to know what you think.
