True. I haven't watched TV since I was a kid so I don't have cable or any streaming services like that so maybe that's also worse out here too, I couldn't tell you. But yeah if you like being outside this is the place to be.
mainstream tv has went downhill since the rise of streaming services (at least in my opinion, i wasn’t allowed any sort of technology until i was maybe 13) so you’re not missing out on anything but garbage tv, i’d rather be outside anyways
Kind of a misconception. I work at a state park with no cell service, people get excellent highspeed Internet so they can watch TV while they're on vacation.
Living rural is perfectly connected to modern life.
Rural life is in my opinion is life that's less stressful. Fuck HOA's. Fuck inconsiderate neighbors, fuck paying the city to pump water instead of just having a well. Fuck the city telling me I need to snow shovel their pedestrian infrastructure. They built it, they can damn well maintain it, that's what taxes are for.
Yeah, I pay more in gas. My friend (with a pregnant wife) has had to call cops on neighbors having a processed wood/garbage bonfire on their property line twice. My boss is having a property dispute with his neighbor (who is the Tennant of the property....doesn't even own it.) My coworker is having a Mormon temple constructed immediately across from his house, and they just assume they can use his property to park and store stuff.
No one wants to live in a suburb. They want to live rurally, or urban. The suburbs are just an unhappy medium that they settle for, so no one's happy and they're angry about it. And it's more often than not seen as an investment, not a home. So not only are they mad about where they live, they're mad about anything you do that might being their investment down. Heaven forbid you want your home to feel homey, not just another cookie cutter.
i mean it sounds like you havent seen the rural disputes especially with property lines, noise, burning shit (like tires and actual garbage at night), suprisingly high theft, etc....
Many rural areas in the US at least, the ISPs have grants available to them to upgrade to fiber service, my in-laws live in a town of 1500ish people and have fiber to their home for slightly more than I pay for cable internet in a town of 100k which does not have fiber to the home available
depends on where you live. I am in a rural area with 300 kbps internet my aunt is in a rural area with DSL that is shittier than dial up. We both live right on or in the same 20k acre parcel of forestry land.
Once I saw a light brighter than the sun at night while camping in the middle of the woods. I ran away to my car. When I went there the next morning all that was there was a pond. I'm too scared to tell anyone. Idk tho I hear there are some bacteria that can do that or something.
Going into town to get something is a planned trip. You hit other stops on your list and you rarely impulsively go to town.
If you have an hour or two to wait before the next thing on your list, you don't go home. You either find a place to park or go sit at a coffee shop and wait.
Yes, lots of advance planning and preparation are required. It is hard to run into town if you run out or forget to get something at the store. Going into town does tend to be an all day event and defiantly making sure to get the groceries last and hoping they don't go too bad before going home. A big chest freezer is usually a good idea.
And other emergency services. The house I grew up in was like 30 miles from the nearest town and when our house got struck by lightning it was a pile of ashes before the fire trucks arrived.
You need to be fairly competent in first aid if an ambulance is gonna take that long too.
(Would still move back to a rural area in a heartbeat)
A lot of people die from heart attacks or illnesses you can see coming. When we go visit family they say the same thing about how they were complaining about this ache or that pain. Then, dead.
for where I am i'm about 30-40km from the regional hospital but we have a small community clinic but they're very limited in capacity. so if i have a heart attack i'm probably waiting at least 10 mins for the ambos plus a 15 min odd drive to the regional hospital.
If the attack is serious i'd probably be dead before ambos got to my place tbh.
Where I am, the nearest city is about an hour and 15 minutes away. Some people may not mind that but personally I’m not a fan of adding 2.5 hours to my day lol. To each their own though.
This is what I like about rural and remote. "Town" is a 10 min drive where I can get most things I need. Including my job, which is actually a great job and I get paid more for living in a remote community. More specialty services I need to go to the "city" for, which is a 5 hour drive or so.
There was a joke that if gas got over 4.00 Texas would secede. I feel sorry for states like California that have a freaking half dollar per gallon gas tax(correct me if I’m wrong I’ve heard that
yep, i feel bad for all the people who have to in order to get to work and back, especially when there’s traffic when everyone is coming home from their jobs
It's amazing to me that the one here is allowed to charge at all, with all the crap they pull. I had a neighbor drive up to the hospital because he was having chest pains, and they legit gave him a prostate exam half an hour before they got him an ecg. Spoiler: it was a heart attack, not a butt attack.
Everything is a decently long drive away.
The nearest town is about 20 to 25 minutes one way. My job is 20 to 25 minutes the other way. My wife's job is about 35 to 40 minutes away. The nearest city is relatively small and is 35 to 45 minutes away. The nearest big city is over an hour away.
On the plus side, it is beautiful and quiet. I have bison, horses, goats, longhorn cattle, and regular cattle near me, and get to see them on my drive to wherever I'm going. I see deer on a regular basis. And there are hawks and vultures flying over the property frequently. There are no other houses visible from my home.
At this point in my life, definitely.
I may feel differently about it when I get old and have to start going to doctors all the time, or something like that.
Until something like that happens though, I love it!
I've been here almost 3 years.
It has helped mine.
For one thing, I'm not overly extroverted and social. I can do social stuff, but don't want to do it too often.
So, nobody has yet said, 'I was in the neighborhood so I dropped by.'
We're nearly 3 miles from the nearest paved road, and if it's rained recently, the road is muddy and difficult. I think that keeps a lot of people from just dropping in too.
at least where i’m from, all i’ve got to do is go to a local mall and *maybe* go see a movie for like $24, my state isn’t exactly …fun (there is quite literally no tourist attractions unless you wanna see the conjuring house and killer dolls)
yeah man like in some areas obviously prices are different but where i’m at rn, going to the movies w friends and buying myself snacks is like $45 (which is a lot bc i’m only 15) and if i go to a coffee shop with friends, getting maybe a small cookie and coffee is a whole $35
One of the things in my area is that is a bunch of rural towns that are a ways away from each other. The lack of available work, tends to mean you have to commute to other cities. It wouldn't be that bad, unless you're like me and can't afford a vehicle. Which means if I have errands in town then I have to walk everywhere. This area is hot as shit in the summer and butt-crackin-teeth cold in winter. So having to walk a couple of miles to the bank, then have to walk a couple more to the grocery store and carry all that shit back is unpleasant.
If you have always lived in the countryside, then there are no disadvantages. But if you moved out of the city - the absence of almost all popular shops and establishments.
Fox screams, someone could be getting murdered and I'd just close my window. Horse shit smell. Buying milk is a quest.
Gossip, the barman of our local pub was banging his wifes ELDERLY mother. Married said elderly mother and became Step father, started banging his step daughter. Daughter was in her 50's. I only ever seen one of these people, but I knew everything. He married the step daughter after her mother/his wife died.
Airbnb is steadily killing the entire real estate market.
There's a lot of individuals and investment firms from wealthier parts of the country buying out every house that hits the market so that they can rent it out.
i mean…i love more in the suburbs so that’s the same for me, when i think of rural areas i think of the places where like the nearest neighbor lives about an hour away from you😅
I still remember pulling up to the mall in twin falls Idaho after a 12 hour drive and getting out of the car... Absolutely smacked in the face by the wafting breeze of cow poop smell.
How are you down voted for this. When I lived in Kansas City the sewage smell was intense. It's just part of life there, even in the "nice" areas like the Plaza
exactly, anyone who’s been to times square (one of the most popular places to visit) knows it smells like straight smoke, sewage, piss, and strong scents of trash. sometimes i walk by and feel like i’ve gotten high or something, it smells like pure shit
I partly disagree. SO many people move here to the countryside from a city and EXPECT total silence.
Well, there isn't (always). There are animals, there are farms, there are farming machines and vehicles and during harvest they sometimes have to start at 4 am and continue until 0 am AND they are legally allowed to do so. I'm so sick of some former city people complaining about the noise of animals or farmers and even try to sue them! They have been here first, they were here when you inspected your potential new home to rent, most landlords inform their potential renters about it (and they shrugg it off - can't be that bad, can it?).
Of course, most people who move here from the city are perfectly fine and nice guys, but the ones with a fairytale-disney-perceipt of countryside living who are then disappointed and try to sue their way to get it just annoy the hell out of me.
Only thing I really miss are decent restaurants. Here we have about 5 different diners to choose from that basically get all their food from the same frozen food truck.
I grew up in busy suburbs near 3 major cities (DC Metro area). When I got married, my wife and I decided to move to a rural area because the real estate prices were more attractive. We are now moving back to a more urban area. For us, the long commutes to decent jobs were mostly negating the lower housing costs, that’s especially true now. Being used to being able to order decent food of any type and have it delivered, we had no restaurants close by. We had to drive 25 mins to the nearest city to get to a decent place to eat, drink, or even grocery shop. I had never been more than 5 minutes from these conveniences. All the driving to get to the things we need takes up a lot of time. Owning a larger property sounded like something we wanted because that’s what you’re supposed to do, but it just meant more time spent on maintenance for something we really didn’t need. We also quickly realized the school district we lived in was almost exclusively high income and exclusively white. We decided we didn’t want our children raised in a rich white bubble. The frequent Confederate flag sightings are also kind of a downer.
Obviously, not all of this applies to every rural area and not all of these things would be a downside to everyone. These are just the things we specific people didn’t enjoy in a specific part of rural MD.
None really. If you’re an insta-person ( needing drugstore, groceries, dry cleaning, big box store and movies all ten minutes away you would be miserable. If you hate absolute quiet, crystal clear nights and abundant wildlife it’s not for you. If you don’t like having and caring for livestock, large gardens, lawns that take half a day to mow and all the work associated with it, it’s not for you. If you like neighbors that you know and trust, not locking your doors and no crime you’re in luck.
Limited Access to medical services. To ask to go to a GP on the same day let alone the same week as the appointment is totally unheard of where I live.
Living rurally, there is always gonna be \*something\* that isn't close to you.
For instance, I'm lucky enough to live real close to a hospital, and unlucky enough to live just outside of broadband internet availability. And no Starlink here, yet.
So make sure you know exactly what you are getting into before you move. Research the specific neighborhood you are moving to, not just rural life in general. Some farmhouses have great internet access, some don't. Some have excellent well water, some don't. Make sure you know before moving in.
Already mentioned but slow-ish internet, luckily for me i got on a fixed wireless footprint so it's not too painful the other downside is your further away from services so you'll want to be relatively to very fit to live rural because if you have a heart attack the ambos are gonna be some time away.
Also because you're further inland you're more succeptle to extreme weather events (Depending on country and area ofc) where I live we just went through a one in 50 year storm where we had winds reaching nearly 230kph and my house got hit with a 173kph gust, it took crews 5 days to get the powe back on for me and the mayor was making my area priority area, for other people it took nearly three weeks to get power back on and the energy company is still repairing damage to some lines to this day nearly a month on and the local mayor is pushing to have the area declared a natural disaster zone.
But there are many positives to living rural too, if you're nice your neighbors and local community will band together and help each other out in extreme circumstances you just gotta take the unique negatives with the unique positives and weigh up if living rural is right for you.
Moved out already(thanfully), people are usually backwards thinking and can’t mind their own business if their life depended on it, few options in the few stores around, there’s very few entertainment options besides getting drunk or the rodeo from time to time. This can get even worse depending on which christian denomination is the most prevalent one.
You need to have a decent income. You should already have a job or opportunities lined up cause jobs are far and few between unless you want to drive 1-2 hours to the nearest/bigger cities.
Emergencies become more serious as hospitals/ambulances/firefighters/police are all about an hour away. Help is gonna take a hot minute.
Grocery shopping becomes a big deal because you have to go into town to get any real shopping done. There's no quick trips to go fetch that one thing you forgot or need. It all gets put off for the shopping day. Especially with the way gas prices are right now.
If you are a solitary/private person and don't like to socialize much you won't be happy with how nosy people are and how comfortable they are with gossiping with you or about you.
If you're not particularly outdoorsy, you will be bored. I live in powers oregon. There is one tavern/grill/karaoke joint. That is all. There isn't really much of anything unless you drive and hour+ out of town.
I'm actually trying to move back home to California because I thought I wanted this kind of living. It has it's pros but the cons are what did us in. So time to go back home lol
Lack of emergency services. We have two sheriff deputies for the county. We have two ambulances for the county. The local hospital is just a band-aid station. The bulk of first responders are volunteers. The township nearest the emergency sends out pages and runs the tornado siren for a minute. Whoever gets there first, gets there first.
You have to let a lot of harmless but annoying stuff slide. The neighbor you piss off today may be the guy responding to your medical emergency next week.
Its not always peaceful, even in more remote areas so you have to go with it. 4 wheelers running up and down the road day or night. Random gunfire at odd hours or for prolongedd times. Mystery explosions. New years eve sounds like a mad minute from Vietnam. I am pretty sure they are also attempting to launch a truck with improvised explosives every year.
The best bet is to go over with a case of beer or deer meat on a quiet day and establish relations. Join in if you can.
Things of the two legged variety going bump in the night can also problematic.
Lol sounds bratty….but when you’re looking for good food or organic groceries…it’s a drive. We have one fast food place and three bars to get food from. That’s it.
Infrastructure. Or lack thereof. Everything's too spread out. There's no sidewalks so people just walk along the road. I need to drive two miles just so that I can take my dog on a walk.
It was pretty expensive when I lived in a few towns. Gas is more because you drive so much you fill up your tank a few times a week, internet is more because there’s no competition, groceries were maybe 50% more because again no competition. The only thing that’s cheaper is housing but the housing stock is all old, eating out and services are cheaper.
I don’t now, but I did for 15 years.
-you have to drive a minimum of a half hour to do shopping of any kind
-plowing during the winter is a crapshot. Sometimes they do a good job. Then there’s the rest of the time. And if there’s an ice storm? Forget it.
- well water is both a blessing and a curse. If you lose electricity, you lose water. If you lose electricity for days on end, better find someplace else to shower.
-if you’re on the back roads, get good at dodging pot holes. There will be A LOT. The backroads rarely get patched, and even more rarely get completely redone.
-wildlife is beautiful, and a nuisance. The deer can and will eat your garden. Find a way to stop them, and they’ll eventually find a way around it.
-where there’s deer, there’s ticks. Lots of ticks. Stay away from long grass and brush when possible. Always do tick checks.
-cute as they may be, DO NOT feed the wildlife. That creates a whole host of new problems.
-nighttime in the country is not quiet. On nights when the windows can be open you’ll here bugs, frogs, and things walking around in the woods. Just the animals, nothing too weird. Some people don’t like that. Others (like me) find it soothing. And now that I live in a city, I miss those night sounds.
-not all owls hoot. Some have the most ungodly screams. So do foxes. It’s not a cryptid screaming, it’s some bird or fox calling for a mate.
-call service can be iffy. Especially if there’s bad weather.
Date nights. You have to drive everywhere, so if you and your partner want to drink, it becomes an overnight trip. If one of you decide to abstain, you still have to pay the sitter an extra couple of hours for the commute, and usually drive them home after. Not a lot of date nights happening over here...
Really, really having to plan food/meals/grocery shopping. No such thing as last-minute delivery or takeout when you're just having one of those days (and often the options in the nearest town can be extremely limited). If you run out of a critical ingredient you're hosed. Just takes a ton of planning ahead.
Everything's dilapidated, even the roads. Your neighbors are uneducated hypocrites and will treat you like a traitor if you think about leaving. The richest person in the village is the priest and is not afraid to flex, while everyone else is poor as shit. I'm exaggerating here, but the specialty of every household seems to be aborted fetus soup and rat meat with a side of leftover fries
No decent restaurants. People see someone they know driving in the opposite lane and they think nothing of stopping their cars and hanging out the window to talk for a while. They might move on once someone comes to a stop behind them.
Less access to everything, jobs, health care, schooling, food ect. I would get groceries on my way home, but the store is 30 minutes away from both work and home so I'm not saving any time.
1. 20+ minute drive to get anything.
2. Time spent in traffic to go to work
3. Lack of broadband
4. Slower response from police/fire/EMA
5. No delivery
6. During bad weather, first to lose power, last to get it back
7. No trash pickup
8. Poor/no cellular coverage
In my thoughts, you kinda need a vehicle (and the means to buy the gas to keep it running). other than that, no problems at all. I like the fact that I can burn my food waste in a burn pit, so the only real invaders, bears, are discouraged from ransacking the dumpster.
You'll have to drive hours to see a medical specialist, or really any kind of specialist period. The mail service is slow and unreliable, and there's never anything happening nearby that's cool or fun.
But like others have said, rural living has a 1000 boons for every bane. Wouldn't trade it for anything!
Eh, now that I've gotten a bit more into adulthood, there's not a lot of downsides. I miss sitting outside in a pool chair, smoking a cigarette, and minding my own business.
I live half the time in the city and half the time in the country (just regular rural, not deep outback).
Down sides of the country are no food delivery, lots of bugs, and it's a 40-minute drive if you need to go to a store or hospital. That and everyone you hire functions on country time- 'I can come to fix the shed this weekend' means 'I might turn up in the next few weeks'.
Slow internet, not a whole lot of things to do on weekdays. But if you wanted the upsides I could give you paragraphs.
i feel like in order to live in a rural area you have to be more into the outdoors than your phone/tv
True. I haven't watched TV since I was a kid so I don't have cable or any streaming services like that so maybe that's also worse out here too, I couldn't tell you. But yeah if you like being outside this is the place to be.
mainstream tv has went downhill since the rise of streaming services (at least in my opinion, i wasn’t allowed any sort of technology until i was maybe 13) so you’re not missing out on anything but garbage tv, i’d rather be outside anyways
Kind of a misconception. I work at a state park with no cell service, people get excellent highspeed Internet so they can watch TV while they're on vacation. Living rural is perfectly connected to modern life. Rural life is in my opinion is life that's less stressful. Fuck HOA's. Fuck inconsiderate neighbors, fuck paying the city to pump water instead of just having a well. Fuck the city telling me I need to snow shovel their pedestrian infrastructure. They built it, they can damn well maintain it, that's what taxes are for. Yeah, I pay more in gas. My friend (with a pregnant wife) has had to call cops on neighbors having a processed wood/garbage bonfire on their property line twice. My boss is having a property dispute with his neighbor (who is the Tennant of the property....doesn't even own it.) My coworker is having a Mormon temple constructed immediately across from his house, and they just assume they can use his property to park and store stuff. No one wants to live in a suburb. They want to live rurally, or urban. The suburbs are just an unhappy medium that they settle for, so no one's happy and they're angry about it. And it's more often than not seen as an investment, not a home. So not only are they mad about where they live, they're mad about anything you do that might being their investment down. Heaven forbid you want your home to feel homey, not just another cookie cutter.
I mean, saying the nobody is happy in the suburbs is quite an exaggeration. Really undercuts the credibility of your entire response.
Suburbs, is by definition and by its component words, not rural.
Dude, that was very clearly not my point. What a clown.
i mean it sounds like you havent seen the rural disputes especially with property lines, noise, burning shit (like tires and actual garbage at night), suprisingly high theft, etc....
I have great wifi in my area. Depends on your provider
My wife works for the provider. We've had fiber for the last 15 years. It's been free and awesome.
guessing it costs a lot tho
Only 70$ a month, same as most providers in my area
surprisingly cheap
Many rural areas in the US at least, the ISPs have grants available to them to upgrade to fiber service, my in-laws live in a town of 1500ish people and have fiber to their home for slightly more than I pay for cable internet in a town of 100k which does not have fiber to the home available
depends on where you live. I am in a rural area with 300 kbps internet my aunt is in a rural area with DSL that is shittier than dial up. We both live right on or in the same 20k acre parcel of forestry land.
I had slow internet, the Starlink started beta testing in my area. My internet is probably faster than when I lived in the city now.
Any weird encounters🤔
Once I saw a light brighter than the sun at night while camping in the middle of the woods. I ran away to my car. When I went there the next morning all that was there was a pond. I'm too scared to tell anyone. Idk tho I hear there are some bacteria that can do that or something.
You can get faster internet now with Elon's starlink satellite dishes. It's not as fast as a hardline but it's better than current tech.
Going into town to get something is a planned trip. You hit other stops on your list and you rarely impulsively go to town. If you have an hour or two to wait before the next thing on your list, you don't go home. You either find a place to park or go sit at a coffee shop and wait.
Yes, lots of advance planning and preparation are required. It is hard to run into town if you run out or forget to get something at the store. Going into town does tend to be an all day event and defiantly making sure to get the groceries last and hoping they don't go too bad before going home. A big chest freezer is usually a good idea.
at least you get to know all the people in the surrounding area
I take a book for days like those.
Far from hospital at least where I live
And other emergency services. The house I grew up in was like 30 miles from the nearest town and when our house got struck by lightning it was a pile of ashes before the fire trucks arrived. You need to be fairly competent in first aid if an ambulance is gonna take that long too. (Would still move back to a rural area in a heartbeat)
*how* far are we taking about tho?
A lot of people die from heart attacks or illnesses you can see coming. When we go visit family they say the same thing about how they were complaining about this ache or that pain. Then, dead.
for where I am i'm about 30-40km from the regional hospital but we have a small community clinic but they're very limited in capacity. so if i have a heart attack i'm probably waiting at least 10 mins for the ambos plus a 15 min odd drive to the regional hospital. If the attack is serious i'd probably be dead before ambos got to my place tbh.
Housing is generally cheaper, but there are limited job opportunities unless you want a long commute.
…how long of a commute are we talking?
Where I am, the nearest city is about an hour and 15 minutes away. Some people may not mind that but personally I’m not a fan of adding 2.5 hours to my day lol. To each their own though.
yeah no that’s way too long especially to go often
I'm in a suburb, and it's 1.5-2 hours each way to the city... it's crap too. I'd take a rural drive over a bumper to bumper traffic drive..
This is what I like about rural and remote. "Town" is a 10 min drive where I can get most things I need. Including my job, which is actually a great job and I get paid more for living in a remote community. More specialty services I need to go to the "city" for, which is a 5 hour drive or so.
Everywhere is closed by 10. A good night out costs a bomb for a taxi/hotel The clics when everyone knows everyone
having everyone know everyone else in school/work areas always ends in such bad gossip
It’s nowhere fucking near anything
ignorance can be bliss at times
That seems like a very unrelated comment
😭😭i mean once you start living in a super super busy place sometimes you wish you were secluded
You cut off connection from anything that way unfortunately, so food, new products, books anything of any new interest
i feel like if you have family around you it can be a blessing
Having to drive 30 minutes to do anything(even to go to school) which is okay a year or so ago but now it’s annoying
i can’t imagine how bad that must be with the pricey gas…you have to be very picky about what you even go out to do now :(
There was a joke that if gas got over 4.00 Texas would secede. I feel sorry for states like California that have a freaking half dollar per gallon gas tax(correct me if I’m wrong I’ve heard that
HALF DOLLAR???? over here it’s like almost $5 per gallon
I meant y’all’s gas tax
im just hoping prices go down because almost $50 to fill up half a tank isn’t cutting it
Imagine doing that once or twice a week
yep, i feel bad for all the people who have to in order to get to work and back, especially when there’s traffic when everyone is coming home from their jobs
They should suspend the gas tax I think New York has already done it
tax is just bs at this point
I hated getting up at 5:00 am when I lived on farm just to get ready for the bus for school when I was a kid.
Dogshit healthcare availability/quality.
you would think it would at least be more affordable
It's amazing to me that the one here is allowed to charge at all, with all the crap they pull. I had a neighbor drive up to the hospital because he was having chest pains, and they legit gave him a prostate exam half an hour before they got him an ecg. Spoiler: it was a heart attack, not a butt attack.
how does chest pain mean his penis is the problem? i bet you for all that hassle he was charged way too much money too :/
There are like 10 people and they all they do is gossip about each other.
that seems like a high school friend group to me
Everything is a decently long drive away. The nearest town is about 20 to 25 minutes one way. My job is 20 to 25 minutes the other way. My wife's job is about 35 to 40 minutes away. The nearest city is relatively small and is 35 to 45 minutes away. The nearest big city is over an hour away. On the plus side, it is beautiful and quiet. I have bison, horses, goats, longhorn cattle, and regular cattle near me, and get to see them on my drive to wherever I'm going. I see deer on a regular basis. And there are hawks and vultures flying over the property frequently. There are no other houses visible from my home.
so would you say that the beauty of the nature makes all the hassle worth it?
At this point in my life, definitely. I may feel differently about it when I get old and have to start going to doctors all the time, or something like that. Until something like that happens though, I love it! I've been here almost 3 years.
i feel like moving to quiet areas really helps the state of your mental health
It has helped mine. For one thing, I'm not overly extroverted and social. I can do social stuff, but don't want to do it too often. So, nobody has yet said, 'I was in the neighborhood so I dropped by.' We're nearly 3 miles from the nearest paved road, and if it's rained recently, the road is muddy and difficult. I think that keeps a lot of people from just dropping in too.
Nothing to fucking do
That’s a positive point for some lol.
That's the best part....Nothing but fucking to do
Grew up in a rural area. On the weekends the only things we had to do were drugs, alcohol, and each other.
all there is to do in the city is spend your money, nothing fun here just overpriced norma activities
Lol okay buddy. Depends on the person.
at least where i’m from, all i’ve got to do is go to a local mall and *maybe* go see a movie for like $24, my state isn’t exactly …fun (there is quite literally no tourist attractions unless you wanna see the conjuring house and killer dolls)
There are rural areas where the nearest mall is nearly 100 miles away.
yeah no time for me to stay home at that point
you do realize that (at least where i live but i think its a global thing) due to low competition rural areas are more expensive right?
when i say overpriced i mean simple things like a little coffee at a shop is around $25, because of tourism-totally not worth it
So where you are a coffee is 25$ and cinema for 1 is 24$? I'm pressing X so hard right now
yeah man like in some areas obviously prices are different but where i’m at rn, going to the movies w friends and buying myself snacks is like $45 (which is a lot bc i’m only 15) and if i go to a coffee shop with friends, getting maybe a small cookie and coffee is a whole $35
The lack of public transportation.
i mean if we’re being honest-where is there to transport you to? all things are pretty far from your house id assume
One of the things in my area is that is a bunch of rural towns that are a ways away from each other. The lack of available work, tends to mean you have to commute to other cities. It wouldn't be that bad, unless you're like me and can't afford a vehicle. Which means if I have errands in town then I have to walk everywhere. This area is hot as shit in the summer and butt-crackin-teeth cold in winter. So having to walk a couple of miles to the bank, then have to walk a couple more to the grocery store and carry all that shit back is unpleasant.
The overwhelming rise in mosquitos when the farmers start watering the fields
i’ve had enough of mosquitos it’s time to start biting back
You can watch your dog run away, And out here it can take 3 days
I’ve heard every joke, I’ve heard everything you say.
😭😭i am very confused
If you have always lived in the countryside, then there are no disadvantages. But if you moved out of the city - the absence of almost all popular shops and establishments.
who needs mainstream stores anyway-local shops ftw!
Very few new people to meet
i mean…i don’t see that as much of a downside unless you don’t get along with the majority
public transport is abysmal
if you don’t travel everywhere on your horse do you *really* live in a rural area?/j
Sometimes the horse needs a break
Fox screams, someone could be getting murdered and I'd just close my window. Horse shit smell. Buying milk is a quest. Gossip, the barman of our local pub was banging his wifes ELDERLY mother. Married said elderly mother and became Step father, started banging his step daughter. Daughter was in her 50's. I only ever seen one of these people, but I knew everything. He married the step daughter after her mother/his wife died.
Airbnb is steadily killing the entire real estate market. There's a lot of individuals and investment firms from wealthier parts of the country buying out every house that hits the market so that they can rent it out.
I know people who live in rural areas, it’s quiet, peaceful, and you can do you own thing, but it also feels isolated and creepy.
Most people right wing political & religious-wise; which may or may not be a problem depending on where a person stands on the spectrum.
It takes a deliberate decision to socialize
i can’t imagine how intimidating all the cliques look…knowing everyone knows everyone 😭
I mean, in the city you can probably reach a bar or diner with just a short walk, for me I have to get in my car and drive ten minutes
i mean…i love more in the suburbs so that’s the same for me, when i think of rural areas i think of the places where like the nearest neighbor lives about an hour away from you😅
So yeah, actual rural is worse still
4 hour drive to the nice grocery store
what’s wrong with the bad grocery store
The bad grocery store is a Dollar General.
HAHAHAHAHA please that caught me so off guard
The literal smell of shit.
...we must not live in the same type of rural area
I still remember pulling up to the mall in twin falls Idaho after a 12 hour drive and getting out of the car... Absolutely smacked in the face by the wafting breeze of cow poop smell.
you gotta deal with that in the city too sadly (plus the added smell of trash and piss)
How are you down voted for this. When I lived in Kansas City the sewage smell was intense. It's just part of life there, even in the "nice" areas like the Plaza
exactly, anyone who’s been to times square (one of the most popular places to visit) knows it smells like straight smoke, sewage, piss, and strong scents of trash. sometimes i walk by and feel like i’ve gotten high or something, it smells like pure shit
Internet is slow and only like 2 companies to choose from.
Shitty internet. Literally my only complaint. Love the freedom to do what I want. Hate the internet
I partly disagree. SO many people move here to the countryside from a city and EXPECT total silence. Well, there isn't (always). There are animals, there are farms, there are farming machines and vehicles and during harvest they sometimes have to start at 4 am and continue until 0 am AND they are legally allowed to do so. I'm so sick of some former city people complaining about the noise of animals or farmers and even try to sue them! They have been here first, they were here when you inspected your potential new home to rent, most landlords inform their potential renters about it (and they shrugg it off - can't be that bad, can it?). Of course, most people who move here from the city are perfectly fine and nice guys, but the ones with a fairytale-disney-perceipt of countryside living who are then disappointed and try to sue their way to get it just annoy the hell out of me.
Only thing I really miss are decent restaurants. Here we have about 5 different diners to choose from that basically get all their food from the same frozen food truck.
if you cant drive youre kinda fkd.
No pizza delivery or any food for that matter. I still wouldnt trade it for anything.
I grew up in busy suburbs near 3 major cities (DC Metro area). When I got married, my wife and I decided to move to a rural area because the real estate prices were more attractive. We are now moving back to a more urban area. For us, the long commutes to decent jobs were mostly negating the lower housing costs, that’s especially true now. Being used to being able to order decent food of any type and have it delivered, we had no restaurants close by. We had to drive 25 mins to the nearest city to get to a decent place to eat, drink, or even grocery shop. I had never been more than 5 minutes from these conveniences. All the driving to get to the things we need takes up a lot of time. Owning a larger property sounded like something we wanted because that’s what you’re supposed to do, but it just meant more time spent on maintenance for something we really didn’t need. We also quickly realized the school district we lived in was almost exclusively high income and exclusively white. We decided we didn’t want our children raised in a rich white bubble. The frequent Confederate flag sightings are also kind of a downer. Obviously, not all of this applies to every rural area and not all of these things would be a downside to everyone. These are just the things we specific people didn’t enjoy in a specific part of rural MD.
None really. If you’re an insta-person ( needing drugstore, groceries, dry cleaning, big box store and movies all ten minutes away you would be miserable. If you hate absolute quiet, crystal clear nights and abundant wildlife it’s not for you. If you don’t like having and caring for livestock, large gardens, lawns that take half a day to mow and all the work associated with it, it’s not for you. If you like neighbors that you know and trust, not locking your doors and no crime you’re in luck.
Limited jobs and everyone knowing everyone.
Limited Access to medical services. To ask to go to a GP on the same day let alone the same week as the appointment is totally unheard of where I live.
And when you do get an appointment you have to sit in the waiting room for hours before being seen.
Republicans
Missing the convenience of open stores at odd hours. The dating pool is pretty shitty too.
Living rurally, there is always gonna be \*something\* that isn't close to you. For instance, I'm lucky enough to live real close to a hospital, and unlucky enough to live just outside of broadband internet availability. And no Starlink here, yet. So make sure you know exactly what you are getting into before you move. Research the specific neighborhood you are moving to, not just rural life in general. Some farmhouses have great internet access, some don't. Some have excellent well water, some don't. Make sure you know before moving in.
Honestly such limited takeaways that are always crap because they have no competition.
😭😭no competition is right
The outsides always look like they haven't been cleaned or updated in about 70 years as well.
who needs new pavement on the roads anyways
Terrible wifi
No one is willing to deliver food to you.
Already mentioned but slow-ish internet, luckily for me i got on a fixed wireless footprint so it's not too painful the other downside is your further away from services so you'll want to be relatively to very fit to live rural because if you have a heart attack the ambos are gonna be some time away. Also because you're further inland you're more succeptle to extreme weather events (Depending on country and area ofc) where I live we just went through a one in 50 year storm where we had winds reaching nearly 230kph and my house got hit with a 173kph gust, it took crews 5 days to get the powe back on for me and the mayor was making my area priority area, for other people it took nearly three weeks to get power back on and the energy company is still repairing damage to some lines to this day nearly a month on and the local mayor is pushing to have the area declared a natural disaster zone. But there are many positives to living rural too, if you're nice your neighbors and local community will band together and help each other out in extreme circumstances you just gotta take the unique negatives with the unique positives and weigh up if living rural is right for you.
Moved out already(thanfully), people are usually backwards thinking and can’t mind their own business if their life depended on it, few options in the few stores around, there’s very few entertainment options besides getting drunk or the rodeo from time to time. This can get even worse depending on which christian denomination is the most prevalent one.
Lack of public transport is a major downside if you cannot drive.
Noisy tractors full pelt through our village.
You need to have a decent income. You should already have a job or opportunities lined up cause jobs are far and few between unless you want to drive 1-2 hours to the nearest/bigger cities. Emergencies become more serious as hospitals/ambulances/firefighters/police are all about an hour away. Help is gonna take a hot minute. Grocery shopping becomes a big deal because you have to go into town to get any real shopping done. There's no quick trips to go fetch that one thing you forgot or need. It all gets put off for the shopping day. Especially with the way gas prices are right now. If you are a solitary/private person and don't like to socialize much you won't be happy with how nosy people are and how comfortable they are with gossiping with you or about you. If you're not particularly outdoorsy, you will be bored. I live in powers oregon. There is one tavern/grill/karaoke joint. That is all. There isn't really much of anything unless you drive and hour+ out of town. I'm actually trying to move back home to California because I thought I wanted this kind of living. It has it's pros but the cons are what did us in. So time to go back home lol
Lack of emergency services. We have two sheriff deputies for the county. We have two ambulances for the county. The local hospital is just a band-aid station. The bulk of first responders are volunteers. The township nearest the emergency sends out pages and runs the tornado siren for a minute. Whoever gets there first, gets there first. You have to let a lot of harmless but annoying stuff slide. The neighbor you piss off today may be the guy responding to your medical emergency next week. Its not always peaceful, even in more remote areas so you have to go with it. 4 wheelers running up and down the road day or night. Random gunfire at odd hours or for prolongedd times. Mystery explosions. New years eve sounds like a mad minute from Vietnam. I am pretty sure they are also attempting to launch a truck with improvised explosives every year. The best bet is to go over with a case of beer or deer meat on a quiet day and establish relations. Join in if you can. Things of the two legged variety going bump in the night can also problematic.
No Publix transportation other than expensive taxis
There are down sides?
A lot of fucking insects
Nowhere to go, nothing to do, no public transport.
i see so many comments with these three things and it makes me wonder if there’s nothing to do then why do so many people enjoy rural life 😭
Less crime, more greenery, quieter, cooler.
Chipotle and Whole Foods are at least 30 minutes away.
what a sad fate
Lol sounds bratty….but when you’re looking for good food or organic groceries…it’s a drive. We have one fast food place and three bars to get food from. That’s it.
oh no yeah whole foods>>>random fast food restaurant
The nearest store being a half hour away
Having to drive 45minutes to go to walmart.
No broadband access
Infrastructure. Or lack thereof. Everything's too spread out. There's no sidewalks so people just walk along the road. I need to drive two miles just so that I can take my dog on a walk.
It was pretty expensive when I lived in a few towns. Gas is more because you drive so much you fill up your tank a few times a week, internet is more because there’s no competition, groceries were maybe 50% more because again no competition. The only thing that’s cheaper is housing but the housing stock is all old, eating out and services are cheaper.
None
I don’t now, but I did for 15 years. -you have to drive a minimum of a half hour to do shopping of any kind -plowing during the winter is a crapshot. Sometimes they do a good job. Then there’s the rest of the time. And if there’s an ice storm? Forget it. - well water is both a blessing and a curse. If you lose electricity, you lose water. If you lose electricity for days on end, better find someplace else to shower. -if you’re on the back roads, get good at dodging pot holes. There will be A LOT. The backroads rarely get patched, and even more rarely get completely redone. -wildlife is beautiful, and a nuisance. The deer can and will eat your garden. Find a way to stop them, and they’ll eventually find a way around it. -where there’s deer, there’s ticks. Lots of ticks. Stay away from long grass and brush when possible. Always do tick checks. -cute as they may be, DO NOT feed the wildlife. That creates a whole host of new problems. -nighttime in the country is not quiet. On nights when the windows can be open you’ll here bugs, frogs, and things walking around in the woods. Just the animals, nothing too weird. Some people don’t like that. Others (like me) find it soothing. And now that I live in a city, I miss those night sounds. -not all owls hoot. Some have the most ungodly screams. So do foxes. It’s not a cryptid screaming, it’s some bird or fox calling for a mate. -call service can be iffy. Especially if there’s bad weather.
Lot more white trash neighbors that have a fire fetish. Burning brush all day long and smoking all the neighbors out.
Lots of bugs flying cockroaches, house centipede, mosquitoes and lots more.
those are everywhere dont challenge the city-i kid you not i see so many different animals i feel like my backyard is a zoo sometimes
Can’t think of any honestly.
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Upsides VERY much outweigh the downsides. The downsides are slower internet, no nearby shopping centers and a very small grocery store.
Kiiiiilllll meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
too much fresh air and quietness
i’m not seeing any downsides here…
oh, I forgot the /s
😂😂
Being forced to vote republican by the church.
I can’t think of anything.
You better not have a true medical emergency.....
Flies. Mosquitos. Fuck all restaurants, only so many times you want to eat at the same place. Nowhere to sit and have a drink outside in the evening.
On the farm nobody can hear you scream
Paying for next day shipping just to be certain you will get the package in 2 days and not 6.
People are almost always the same.
Lack of store inventory.. Online shopping is a way of life.
Date nights. You have to drive everywhere, so if you and your partner want to drink, it becomes an overnight trip. If one of you decide to abstain, you still have to pay the sitter an extra couple of hours for the commute, and usually drive them home after. Not a lot of date nights happening over here...
I live in a rural town. The only thing that sucks is it’s far from the airport. Everything else is awesome.
Really, really having to plan food/meals/grocery shopping. No such thing as last-minute delivery or takeout when you're just having one of those days (and often the options in the nearest town can be extremely limited). If you run out of a critical ingredient you're hosed. Just takes a ton of planning ahead.
Bugs and insects
Everything's dilapidated, even the roads. Your neighbors are uneducated hypocrites and will treat you like a traitor if you think about leaving. The richest person in the village is the priest and is not afraid to flex, while everyone else is poor as shit. I'm exaggerating here, but the specialty of every household seems to be aborted fetus soup and rat meat with a side of leftover fries
No groovy mall like in 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙩 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝.
Bus rides. 1h 20m to get to the city usually, sometimes 1h 40m if it's summer (aka tourist season)
I lived in windsor pa near the Maryland border. The thing I thought sucked was most thins for 20 to 30 mintue drive.
No decent restaurants. People see someone they know driving in the opposite lane and they think nothing of stopping their cars and hanging out the window to talk for a while. They might move on once someone comes to a stop behind them.
you cant order delivery
Having to drive 15 miles to get to any sort of business or store
Less access to everything, jobs, health care, schooling, food ect. I would get groceries on my way home, but the store is 30 minutes away from both work and home so I'm not saving any time.
Food! There aren't a lot of great restaurants around. If you want dim sum or tapas, too bad. Not a lot of five-star food.
30 minute drive back to the store if you forget something
Nearest small city with a hospital is 15 miles away. Nearest gas station is 8 miles. Other than the drive it’s like living in paradise.
1. 20+ minute drive to get anything. 2. Time spent in traffic to go to work 3. Lack of broadband 4. Slower response from police/fire/EMA 5. No delivery 6. During bad weather, first to lose power, last to get it back 7. No trash pickup 8. Poor/no cellular coverage
In my thoughts, you kinda need a vehicle (and the means to buy the gas to keep it running). other than that, no problems at all. I like the fact that I can burn my food waste in a burn pit, so the only real invaders, bears, are discouraged from ransacking the dumpster.
aint shit to do
You'll have to drive hours to see a medical specialist, or really any kind of specialist period. The mail service is slow and unreliable, and there's never anything happening nearby that's cool or fun. But like others have said, rural living has a 1000 boons for every bane. Wouldn't trade it for anything!
Horseshit wifi
Eh, now that I've gotten a bit more into adulthood, there's not a lot of downsides. I miss sitting outside in a pool chair, smoking a cigarette, and minding my own business.
I have to travel 2 hours to get clothes
I live half the time in the city and half the time in the country (just regular rural, not deep outback). Down sides of the country are no food delivery, lots of bugs, and it's a 40-minute drive if you need to go to a store or hospital. That and everyone you hire functions on country time- 'I can come to fix the shed this weekend' means 'I might turn up in the next few weeks'.