Life as a New Gainesville Resident, Part Two: With a Toddler
Feeding Penny the Cow at the City of Gainesville’s Morningside Living History Farm at the Morningside Nature Center. Photo taken by author.
Life with a toddler is hilarious and wonderful and exhausting and exciting. Life in many places with a toddler is challenging because children are not really integrated into our society. The modern western world is not childproof. It’s actually ridiculously dangerous for children. Children are also expensive. They need food, clothing, shelter, supervision, education, and entertainment. So for all the joy that a child brings to a family (which is enormous) there are also plenty of responsibilities that can make child rearing challenging. But then one moves to a town like Gainesville, a place where it is possible to really enjoy raising a family. There are 100s of reasons why life with a toddler in Gainesville is awesome. Below are just a few.
1. Courteous drivers: I’m putting this first because I came from a place with notoriously rude and aggressive drivers. In Gainesville people drive with respect and patience: a parent’s dream come true.
2. The sidewalks literally never end: The town is covered in sidewalks. If you have to get somewhere on foot or with a stroller or a Big Wheel or a scooter, you will appreciate the beautiful, smooth sidewalks of Gainesville.
3. Accessible downtown: Just putting those words together seems impossible but it’s true. Downtown Gainesville has great restaurants and events, easy parking and walkability. No stress to take the little one downtown.
4. A multitude of daycare, preschool and caregiver options: The University of Florida attracts a population that cares about early childhood care and education and so in turn there are numerous options for your little one. There is something for every family, across of range of income levels and parenting styles and philosophies, in Gainesville.
5. Satchel’s Pizza: Delicious pizza served in an outdoor lounge with free live music performances and a playground adjacent the space. To summarize: Pizza + Live Music + Playground = Extremely Grateful Parents.
6. Florida Museum of Natural History: FREE admission to an awesome museum that will blow any toddler’s socks off, and their parent’s socks too. Amazing.
7. Shand’s Hospital for Children at the University of Florida: An extensive children’s hospital affiliated with a top university that quickly impresses. Nice to have close by!
8. Weather: The hot-hot months seemed to be June through August. But even then we enjoyed a tolerable morning until around 11:00 am when things really heated up. Then in the evenings at around 7:00 pm when things started to cool down we could go for a swim. The rest of the year has been amazing. People kept telling us to just wait until winter, that it’s gorgeous here. So far they’ve been absolutely right. How this translates to life with a toddler is extraordinary because what a toddler wants all of the time is to be outside. So in Gainesville that’s pretty much where we are all of time.
9. Close proximity to great beaches: All kids really need to be happy is sand and water. Gainesville puts you close enough to the beaches for frequent weekend getaways and plane-free vacations, and far enough away so that you don’t have to pay for hurricane insurance.
10. City of Gainesville Parks: Lots of cities have parks but then there are some that really go over the top with their parks. That’s where the City of Gainesville parks fall. Nice trails, new play equipment, washrooms…the list goes on. In cases like the Morning Side Living History Farm it’s totally overboard with a real living history farm open all day on Saturdays. And admission is FREE. Crazy.
11. Housing: As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, we rent and for now it looks as though we’ll only be here for two years so if that’s the case we will continue to rent. But I’ve thoroughly scoped out the renters’ and buyers’ real estate markets in Gainesville and they are both awesome. Tons of family-friendly neighborhoods at great prices for buying or renting. Leaves more funds for that trip to Disney World that’s two hours away.
12. Alachua County Mamas (ACM) Meet-Up Group: Here is the icing on the cake. It’s the kind of group that could transform parenting in the United States as we know it, as having children has become a largely isolating experience for many mamas. ACM has hosted 2,520 meet-ups (and counting) for area moms and families since November 2006. Events include everything a person can think of for children (countless parties and play dates) and their mamas (book clubs and movie nights). A great, great resource for families.
This list highlights just a few of my favorite things that make living in Gainesville with a toddler great. Please share yours below!
About the author:
Christina moved to Gainesville with her husband, toddler, dog and cat in the summer of 2011. She writes about all of the great businesses, events and characteristics of Gainesville on her blog HappyGainesville.com. If you missed Part One of Christina’s guest blog series, you can find it here.
