One of my friends (actually, Heidi, from a couple recent entries) asked a great question on Facebook: "During your childhood, was living in a smaller town better for you?"

What a great question.

I've never even thought about it.

Because, on the one hand, in my adult life, I am extremely glad I got out of my small hometown and didn't get stuck there for the rest of my life like many of my classmates.

But my childhood?

Did it make a difference?

It's hard to tell, since I don't have a city-life childhood to compare. But my hubby does, and he turned out all right. Although he has told me about a car that came crashing into his front porch when he was a child (the drive had fallen asleep at the wheel).

Maybe they are equally good places to grow up in? Because I think Stephen and I both turned out okay. Also, I would think that your family life would have more weight on how you turned out than the size of your town.

Besides that, there are good parts of the big city. So it isn't even a question of big city vs. small town, it's more like child-friendly community vs. not-child-friendly community. That's what I think.

Anyway, just a really interesting question. I might be pondering upon this later.

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I thought about it some more, and here's what I wrote to Heidi:

"So I guess we're talking about whether you had a better childhood (whatever "a better childhood" means). And so I think the question has to be expanded beyond strictly small town vs. big city. Because I think whether you had a good childhood depends on a whole lot more factors than just the size of the city you live in. Even in a big city, you have areas that are safer for children than others. And even areas designated "safer" have their problems, too. Just because someone lives in a nice neighborhood doesn't make them nice people. And small towns aren't necessarily safer crime-wise either. The worst crimes (rapes, serial killings, kidnappings, mass murders) often happen in out-of-the-way places where nobody is expecting it."

Obviously, that's still just the beginning of the discussion. It's a very interesting question.

-Stephanie

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