Thoughts on raising child in Glencoe/North Shore?

[whakru]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

I think the benefit of having your child have peers who are the children of successful, accomplished professionals is huge.

Not necessarily. I found growing up in this environment that a lot of the issues were with the parents being completely out of touch with the real world. This just filtered down to their children.


I would say that there is benefit to having peers with parents that are hard working and know how to manage money properly.....this is not limited to areas of affluence.

[rocky12345]

But based on personal experience, Glencoe also has a BUNCH of non accomplished, non professional trust funders,old money and those who get help from their rich families. The nearby suburbs west of lake will have more of the hard working white collar types you are thinking about.

[chicagobear]

Originally Posted by whakru

Not necessarily. I found growing up in this environment that a lot of the issues were with the parents being completely out of touch with the real world. This just filtered down to their children.


I would say that there is benefit to having peers with parents that are hard working and know how to manage money properly.....this is not limited to areas of affluence.

Well, I grew up in a similar type suburb in another city, and I think being around kids who were planning on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs certainly rubbed off on me.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

Well, I grew up in a similar type suburb in another city, and I think being around kids who were planning on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs certainly rubbed off on me.

I agree to some extent, I think your peers definitely influence you. But, you don't have to live on the northshore to have ambitious peers. I felt the same influence growing up in St. Charles. The big difference is most of the wealthy families in St. Charles did not come from family money. There's less wealth there in general, but enough to still have a good influence (at least for me).

FWIW, I think about moving to the northshore area a lot. But, I just don't want to deal with a lot of the expectations of the area. Traveling is a big one. I don't enjoy travel and we will never be a family that travels during every school break. Financially, we could, but I just don't have the desire to. As a kid though, I remember wishing we could go on a "real vacation" when other kids told me about their trips. I have a feeling that would be amplified if we lived in a northshore suburb.

It's a beautiful area though, no denying that. I just prefer the western suburbs, I guess.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by rocky12345

But based on personal experience, Glencoe also has a BUNCH of non accomplished, non professional trust funders,old money and those who get help from their rich families. The nearby suburbs west of lake will have more of the hard working white collar types you are thinking about.

I sort of wonder if perhaps one were to look at this through the same lens that those who proclaim the value of raising one's family among "diversity" might be applied: specifically if the exposure to "trust funders,old money and those who get help from their rich families" might actually be seen as uniquely suited to a world that is rapidly becoming more and more divided between the "haves and have nots"

[strawflower]

Originally Posted by chicagobear

Well, I grew up in a similar type suburb in another city, and I think being around kids who were planning on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs certainly rubbed off on me.

The idea that you need to raise your kids in an uber-affluent town like Glencoe to expose them to kids who plan on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs, and that they won't get that in a Deerfield or a Glenview (or any number of more "mainstream" towns in the area) is just plain silly.

[damba]

Originally Posted by strawflower

The idea that you need to raise your kids in an uber-affluent town like Glencoe to expose them to kids who plan on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs, and that they won't get that in a Deerfield or a Glenview (or any number of more "mainstream" towns in the area) is just plain silly.

Indeed, I agree it is. I'm not certain it was implied though in this thread, at least not how you have phrased it per se.

Cheers

[whakru]

Originally Posted by strawflower

The idea that you need to raise your kids in an uber-affluent town like Glencoe to expose them to kids who plan on going to prestigious colleges and getting good jobs, and that they won't get that in a Deerfield or a Glenview (or any number of more "mainstream" towns in the area) is just plain silly.

This was my point. Growing up around kids of wealthy parents didn't encourage me to "aim high" so that I could be like them. I had parents of my own for that.


If anything, it made me realize that just because you have money and/or go to prestigious colleges doesn't mean you are going to be happy.

[CBB_bear]

I grew up in Wilmette and I have a lot of complicated feelings about the Northshore. In many ways it's a lovely place to grow up and New Trier provides some really excellent opportunities, but the affluence is really a problem especially around middle and high school. My friend commented that she never met anyone who was actually poor (or even truly middle class) until she went to college. There are definitely more down to earth types, and people who just want good schools and opportunities for their kids, but my life felt sheltered even going to a private liberal arts school after New Trier!

For what it's worth, I feel like Wilmette is marginally better than Winnetka, Glencoe, and especially Kennilworth because there is a bigger diversity of housing stock and thus more down to earth families who have more modest homes who just want access to strong schools. Parts of Wilmette feel more tied into Evanston, and access to the L is nice when you are a bored teen who can't drive yet.

I don't have kids yet, but I want to have in the not too far future, and I think a lot about what kind of community I would want to raise my kids in. I think somewhere with more diversity would probably be better. I will say that I have a lot of friends through extracurriculars who went to ETHS, and they really did not seem to be lacking in any opportunity that I had, and had the advantage of interacting with a broader range of people in general.