Neighborhoods aren’t made for the childfree or single parunts

https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/neighborhoods-arent-made-for-childfree-people-or-single-parents

“Although the study didn’t ask why these groups were less satisfied, Watling Neal offered some possibilities. ‘Because single parents tend to have less income, they have fewer choices about where to live. Childfree adults may be less satisfied because they feel excluded when parents plan neighborhood social events that are often kid or school-focused.’”

Some study! They don’t even try to find the answer to WHY some people are less satisfied in neighborhoods? Well, I’d venture to guess that most CFs can answer that, if they’d even bother to ask! And it’s NOT because we feel excluded from breeder-centric social events, it’s because we can’t get away from your obnoxious brats! And heaven forbid someone create a childfree neighborhood, because the breeders throw a fit every time, even though 99.99999% of neighborhoods are famblee-friendly and stuffed to the gills with the little turds.

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Shauna's like a gluten-free Jim Jones for dumb, lifeless middle-aged women. I swear, this bitch could set fire to a orphanage and they would applaud her for bringing them light. ~ Miss Hannigan

I like this paragraph as it points to just how clueless the study is:

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study for article
Although the study didn’t ask why these groups were less satisfied, Watling Neal offered some possibilities. “Because single parents tend to have less income, they have fewer choices about where to live. Childfree adults may be less satisfied because they feel excluded when parents plan neighborhood social events that are often kid or school-focused.”

Why would a childfree person feel excluded from a kid or school focused neighborhood social event? They can go if they want since it is a neighborhood event. Many childfree would have zero interest in attending such an event in the first place, because hello, kids! The tone of this is more of childless adults than childfree.

I think it would be possible to create a neighborhood that caters to the childfree fairly easily. One-bedroom houses/one bath only but include a study/office room or nook or other similar rooms that could "technically" be used as temporary bedrooms. A separate small dwelling in the backyard (mother-in-law type) that contains two bedrooms and one or two baths. I suspect this or something similar may be an anti-deterrent for parunts.

Add some laws about no jungle gyms, etc. and watch it take off!

I think it would be possible to create a neighborhood that caters to the childfree fairly easily. One-bedroom houses/one bath only but include a study/office room or nook or other similar rooms that could "technically" be used as temporary bedrooms. A separate small dwelling in the backyard (mother-in-law type) that contains two bedrooms and one or two baths. I suspect this or something similar may be an anti-deterrent for parunts.

Add some laws about no jungle gyms, etc. and watch it take off![/quote]

Then you'd get breeders screeching about DiScRiMiNaTiOn

It's because all your breeder neighbors judge you as soon as they find out you don't have brats and you automatically become the evil CF witch or crazy cat lady.

I live in a neighborhood where the condos are two and three bedrooms. All the parunts live in the three-bedroom condos. I've also lived in apartment complexes that are one bedroom or efficiencies. Very little to no brats. It probably helps that I live less than 200 ft. from the busiest street in my town and the surrounding yards aren't fenced. There are ways to discourage breeders from living in an area while not explicitly calling out that it is childfree, but then again there is always that one stubborn (and mouthy) moo/duh that moves in (likely because the neighborhood seems so peaceful because there are no brats) and expects the neighborhood to cater to him/her.

If there is a neighborhood pool not having a lifeguard on staff and expecting parunts to watch their own brats keeps it from being a kiddee magnet.

I've heard that even in those 55 plus neighborhoods sometimes brats manage to get in, but not sure how often that happens.

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Medusa
It's because all your breeder neighbors judge you as soon as they find out you don't have brats and you automatically become the evil CF witch or crazy cat lady.

Yep, that's me! We live in a famblee friendly neighborhood with kids to the left, right, behind and in front of us. And while Mr. Peace has never been judged for not having kids, I've been hung out to dry for not breeding. Neighborhood kids call me a witch when they think I don't hear it The women on the street don't like me and are obvious about it.

Maybe calling the cops on their hellspawn a LONG time ago has something to do with it

The upside is that they stay the hell away from us. They even stay out of my garden.

I don't think CF feel "left out" of child-oriented events in neighborhoods...it's that we're just not interested. I don't think the authors of that study asked very many questions of the CF they found.

Mr. Random and I are looking for a bigger place, and we found a really sweet condo that has 50 percent more floor space, superb layout, established area with mature landscaping, etc. As part of looking it over I asked our agent to send over a current copy of bylaws & CCVs. The only version she could get her hands on was from the late 80s, and she'll send over the current one when she can get it. But get this...the rules specifically forbid young kids. It states in black & white, no children under age 15. I guess they could get away with saying it outright back then. I'm curious to see if it's in the current version. Probably not. But it is generally an adult neighborhood.

Our current condo complex has few children in it, and those that are around are pretty quiet. There are green lawns they can run and play on, but no swimming pool, no playground, strict rules about leaving kid toys/bikes/other kindercrap outside. That helps too.

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randomcfchick
But get this...the rules specifically forbid young kids. It states in black & white, no children under age 15. I guess they could get away with saying it outright back then. I'm curious to see if it's in the current version. Probably not. But it is generally an adult neighborhood.

Yep they could! There's an old copy of the local paper stuffed into my desk from 1989 and here are some of the listings in the "Apartments for Rent" section (this is all from the same page):

3 rooms & bath. Just redone. No pets, adults only.

Downstairs 4 rooms, bath. All utilities included. No children or pets. Call after 5pm.

Half country home - downstairs, 4 rooms, laundry, bath, garage, total electric. No children or pets. $310 a month ($310?? WHUT I want to live in 1989!)

Available August 1, Center St., one bedroom. Appliances, laundry included. Adults only, no pets.

Near hospital, extra nice, spacious one bedroom, downstairs. Appliances & laundry hookup. Parking, security deposit required. No children, no pets.

Modern 1 bedroom downstairs. Heat, water, sewer, appliances included. $375 plus electric. No children, no pets.

Some didn't specify no kids, and only one listing for a mobile home said kids were okay.

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Honestly, when did it become evil to say "don't bring your fucking brats here?" Most parents don't even want to be around their own kids, why the hell would anyone else?? I think saying "no kids" should become normalized again. And for the sake of fairness, make some brat-friendly, parent-exclusive apartments/communities so you can put all the trash in the same dumpster.

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Peace
Neighborhood kids call me a witch when they think I don't hear it The women on the street don't like me and are obvious about it.

Maybe calling the cops on their hellspawn a LONG time ago has something to do with it

The upside is that they stay the hell away from us. They even stay out of my garden.

The repellant is good! If the brats are calling you a witch then they likely heard it from somewhere....
Guessing you live in a decent-sized house, are more attractive than most/all of your neighbors and probably have at least one indulgence that makes them green with envy. Keep living your best life!

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randomcfchick
Mr. Random and I are looking for a bigger place, and we found a really sweet condo that has 50 percent more floor space, superb layout, established area with mature landscaping, etc. As part of looking it over I asked our agent to send over a current copy of bylaws & CCVs. The only version she could get her hands on was from the late 80s, and she'll send over the current one when she can get it. But get this...the rules specifically forbid young kids. It states in black & white, no children under age 15. I guess they could get away with saying it outright back then. I'm curious to see if it's in the current version. Probably not. But it is generally an adult neighborhood.

I had no idea! The new condo sounds very promising. Have you seen any evidence of brats around it?

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Cambion

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randomcfchick
But get this...the rules specifically forbid young kids. It states in black & white, no children under age 15. I guess they could get away with saying it outright back then. I'm curious to see if it's in the current version. Probably not. But it is generally an adult neighborhood.

Yep they could! There's an old copy of the local paper stuffed into my desk from 1989 and here are some of the listings in the "Apartments for Rent" section (this is all from the same page):

3 rooms & bath. Just redone. No pets, adults only.

Downstairs 4 rooms, bath. All utilities included. No children or pets. Call after 5pm.

Half country home - downstairs, 4 rooms, laundry, bath, garage, total electric. No children or pets. $310 a month ($310?? WHUT I want to live in 1989!)

Available August 1, Center St., one bedroom. Appliances, laundry included. Adults only, no pets.

Near hospital, extra nice, spacious one bedroom, downstairs. Appliances & laundry hookup. Parking, security deposit required. No children, no pets.

Modern 1 bedroom downstairs. Heat, water, sewer, appliances included. $375 plus electric. No children, no pets.

Some didn't specify no kids, and only one listing for a mobile home said kids were okay.

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Honestly, when did it become evil to say "don't bring your fucking brats here?" Most parents don't even want to be around their own kids, why the hell would anyone else?? I think saying "no kids" should become normalized again. And for the sake of fairness, make some brat-friendly, parent-exclusive apartments/communities so you can put all the trash in the same dumpster.

I wonder if any parunts ever showed up to look at properties that are marked as no kids?
I suspect there have been lots of "equal opportunity housing" pushes since the 80's.
People didn't sugarcoat having brats as much in the 80's, they'd happily latch key them.

What is ridiculous about it is that is really only prevents overt inequalities, as landlords fully have the right to deny a rental app. without revealing that it is because the nice lady who showed up to view the house alone has four brats and the landlord just renovated the place and can't afford to risk it being destroyed.

Also, have you seen the deposit and monthly fees charged for pets? They went from nominal ($50 or $75 deposit only) in the early 2000's to the current several hundred dollars as a deposit plus a monthly fee that isn't so nominal. At least in my area that is what I see, especially at the larger complexes which nickel and dime their tenants to death.

Years ago I had a property manager tell me that if I lied about having a pet and was found out that they would charge me all the applicable fees in arrears. Nice bedside manner, lady!

$300 is a (low) car payment these days.

ETA: Random, that condo sounds great.

DH and live in a typical suburb. I would classify it as upper middle class. We went to exactly ONE social event in our subdivision when we first moved here 15+ years ago. It was a chili cook-off. My DH makes great chili and he's won first place in many cook-offs.

I made small talk with some of the women (and men) but the conversation pretty much turned to discussing everyone else's kids once it was determined we didn't have any rugrats. Men and women seemed incapable of discussing much else.

Even more annoying was watching these idiots and how they behaved with the voting. Many of them openly directed their kids to the ballot box and told them to vote multiple times for the chili their own Moos or Duds made. They sat there and wrote out tickets with no supervision and no shame. I thought it was pretty tacky. If you are going to have judging, make it fair, or have judges and not: the people with the most kids win.

We were generally turned off by the insular conversation and the emphasis on kids. That was the last time we went to one of those things.

As far as immediate neighbors, we are pretty lucky. We like both our next door neighbors. On the left is a single woman with one kid who is 20-something. He's quiet and hard working. We talk about our respective cats. Our neighbor on the other side has twins, and they moved in when they were small. I never saw them outside and they were always quiet. They were focused on school and college and seemed allergic to grass. Across the street someone else has a toddler, but they are actually fun and they don't want to talk about their kid 24/7. And best of all, he works for a distillery, and they put up a tent at Halloween with free booze so everyone likes them, lol. Nice!

Our neighborhood holds social events. There is a decent mix of families with kids and DINK couples. The neighbors are nice enough, but we usually just put in enough face time to be considered polite and then we leave. We don’t have anything in common with these people other than where we live, and I have no interest in being friendly with them beyond what is required to keep the mood pleasant.

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"Not every ejaculation deserves a name" - George Carlin

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bell_flower
Even more annoying was watching these idiots and how they behaved with the voting. Many of them openly directed their kids to the ballot box and told them to vote multiple times for the chili their own Moos or Duds made. They sat there and wrote out tickets with no supervision and no shame. I thought it was pretty tacky. If you are going to have judging, make it fair, or have judges and not: the people with the most kids win.

We were generally turned off by the insular conversation and the emphasis on kids. That was the last time we went to one of those things.

Staying home and cleaning my freaking oven is a better option than this.

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bell_flower
As far as immediate neighbors, we are pretty lucky. We like both our next door neighbors. On the left is a single woman with one kid who is 20-something. He's quiet and hard working. We talk about our respective cats. Our neighbor on the other side has twins, and they moved in when they were small. I never saw them outside and they were always quiet. They were focused on school and college and seemed allergic to grass. Across the street someone else has a toddler, but they are actually fun and they don't want to talk about their kid 24/7. And best of all, he works for a distillery, and they put up a tent at Halloween with free booze so everyone likes them, lol. Nice!

Your immediate neighbors all sound good, great to have neighbors you like!