Moving to Boston/Providence - please help!

[hwolff]

repost from TBW

Woah. Just found out today that DH is being promoted and we are being moved to Boston (not public knowledge yet, FB friends!). His office will be in Canton. His territory covers Boston, South of Boston, and all of Rhode Island.

I am a Kentucky girl. My whole life I have been a Kentucky girl. I am freaking out.

I need a fun area. Where we can walk to a park, where there are babywearers & cloth diaper(ers), and Whole Foods, and Trader Joes. My dog needs a yard. I need an awesome preschool and Catholic elementary school (bus service a plus). I need a neighborhood where my kids can play and I don't have to worry. I am coming from an area where I can leave my doors unlocked and my garage door open and I can leave for the whole day and nothing would happen. I am willing to compromise, but this move can't be a total shock on my boys.

I am already afraid they are going to take this so hard. I am afraid I am going to take this so hard. We need an area that we will love and that will keep us busy. I need an area with friendly people who won't shun me for being the new mom in town. I have a 5 year old who is in kindergarten, a 2.5 year old who needs to be in a couple days a week preschool, and a 6 month old.

So should we shoot for the Quincy/Braintree/Weymouth area, or Providence, or somewhere in between? I literally do not know ANYONE up there, so ANY advice you are willing to give me would be SO GREAT appreciated

[Pampered Mama]

Hey Mama,
We moved here to the Boston area for DH's job almost 4 years ago- from California! It is definately a different way of life here, but we have adapted :-) The winters have been the hardest to adjust to, honestly- we lived where there is hardly ever even a snowflake!

We are in N. Framingham- probably too far for your DH to commute if he is going all those places- we did look at Weymouth, and the other places on the S. Shore you mentioned, and discovered there are huge traffic problems getting in and out of Boston (Boston Proper is a whole other can of worms- We hate going into the city and avoid it if at all possible!) We do like our area- w have half an acre, in a newish (1970's) neighborhood that is well kept, good friendly neighbors- no fences, it's not unusual to see kids crossing through our backyard into theirs on the way home from school. We're about a mile from Sloomb :-)

[3rockstars]

Providence really has gotten lovely over the last 10 years. We have a cloth diapering store in Warwick(Bellani Maternity, google it!) about 20 minutes from Providence. We have the Cloth Diaper Exchange in Westerly, about 40minutes from Providence. If money isn't an issue, the East Side of Providence is absolutely LOVELY. Whole Foods is right there on the East Side(2 stores actually) and another Whole Foods in Cranston(about 10-15minutes from Prov). Roger Williams Park Zoo is right on the Cranston/Providence line and you see tons of babywearers there when you go. I could leave my doors unlocked all over the East Side and not worry about losing anything. If money is a factor, living outside the city and commuting in is still totally possible. Remember, everything RI is about a 20minute drive. PM me if you have questions. I know I'll forget to check this. I'm about 25minutes south of Providence and grew up here and have lived here abotu 25 out of the 30 years of my life.


ETA: Boston is just under 90 minutes from Providence. The Acela makes it quicker though if your hubby doesn't mind taking hte train to work.

[hwolff]

thank you

[huimeilei]

Why not Canton itself? That's actually where I live. I know that there's a Catholic elementary (St. John's). There's a Whole Foods about 10 minutes away, Trader Joe's about 20. There's tons of parks and the Blue Hills. We love where we live. It's fairly convenient to get into Boston, to get to other parts of the South Shore and to get down to RI. If you have questions, send me a PM.

[amgermain]

I was thinking the same thing. I'm from central MA, but Canton's pretty nice and not in Boston itself, which is not a fun or cheap place to live.

If you're looking south, though, Quincy and Braintree are both nice. If you're looking to be more on the coast, there's Cohasset, Sciatuate, and Marshfield, though that'd be a hike for your hubby. Good luck! I promise we're not all so bad up here, though you will hate driving up here. I think us Massholes have some kind of radar to spot people from OOS even if they're driving a car with MA plates

[hwolff]

thank you so much, mamas!

Where is Canton do you live? Can you recommend some neighborhoods near St. Johns?

[huimeilei]

Sorry, I just saw this (one of the things I don't like about these forums is that I never can see that someone replies to me). Please, feel free to PM me, I think it's a little easier to discuss. Hmmm, neighborhoods, I really don't think you can go wrong with anywhere you choose. St. John's is right in the middle of town on Washington St. and there are places right off of there behind the businesses. We live near the Canton Jct T station (commuter rail) and we like it a lot. It's easy to get on 128/93 or 95 and 138. We can walk to the commuter rail and even into town and go to the library and post office, etc. Unfortunately, there's no grocery store in walking distance. There are a few neighborhood parks, so it might be nice to look for something around one of them if you know that you'll spend a lot of time at the playground. When will you be moving?

[umphreysmommy]

Hi!!! First off welcome, I have lived here all my life. Lived in Quincy my whole life and Braintree now. I second actually moving to canton. It is expensive but well worth it. Canton is much much nicer than Quincy, Braintree or Weymouth. If you have your heart set on those three the best would be Braintree. Quincy used to be nice 10+ years ago but has gone downhill every year since, they have built up the apartment and condos in Quincy beyond belief, really making it just an extension on Boston and not a nice one. I would totally recommend it for someone without children and working in Boston as it is on the train line but I am from there and while family is still there I am moving far as I can before my kids reach school age. Quincy used to have upwards of 7 catholic schools, they have all closed down and merged to one school in north Quincy. Some other ideas would be stoughton, wrentham, Norfolk, parts of Walpole, parts of Franklin and more down that way. I think you would be better off farther from the city near canton than closer to the city personally. If you have any more questions you can feel free to pm. Would you be renting or buying?

[moteq]

Originally Posted by 3rockstars If money isn't an issue, the East Side of Providence is absolutely LOVELY.

I totally agree! We just moved back to NY from Providence - for my hubby's job - and I miss it terribly.

There's a nice CD'ing community in Providence. In addition to the stores mentioned above, there's also a prefold diaper service (Mama Earth Village).

If you're planning on renting, feel free to pm me for my former landlord's info.