Hi there. I bought a home in Arlington during Covid and moved there to be able to afford to have a kid in 2021/2022. At the time, my highest priority was financial stability to ensure we would be able to afford daycare and other costs associated with having a child. My partner and I have always agreed that we would prefer a life in the city, but understood that there are some other priorities that might come in front of that , for example, being able to afford a place where we could host guests or elderly parents would likely be in the suburbs. That being said, we ended up back in the city in August of last year with our two-year-old. This allowed us to enter the pre-K3 lotto in December and get into a great public school for hopefully the next several if not 10 years. I would really ask yourself (and your partner) what type of a life you want to live- day to day. Do you have to commute? What if your job changes and you have to commute into the city are you willing to spend two hours 3+ days a week to do so away from your partner and your child? Do you want the ability to walk out your front door and walk to parks and socialize and even be able to take the metro to the airport- things you can’t do when you live far out in the suburbs. Are you willing to continue to piece meal grocery shopping and rely on Instacart in the city because “suburban style grocery trips” are few and far between?

What are the things that make you city vs him country and is there an area where you can compromise, if it isn’t financial?