I don't know anything about Atlanta schools but want to say that I applaud your parenting attitudes!

/tricia (who's son complained mightily because we didn't get him a car until he was 21! Amazingly, he lived through the parental abuse & lived to tell the tale. lol)

Buying your children something "expensive" does NOT make you a bad parent..The way you "parent" determines whether you're a good parent or not...My daughters all have "designer" handbags, and the requisite Uggs,Ipod,cell phones,laptops etc..They are courteous,thoughtful,kind,and caring children..They take nothing for granted..Another glaring generalization...

Give your kids enough so they can do ANYTHING
But don't give them enough where they can do nothing!!!

qdog - For goodness sakes, reread my post. I never said that giving your children expensive items was bad parenting. I never said that all kids with designer handbags were bad kids. My question about the school was related MY values and MY choices.

You doth protest too much. Or, you were just scanning the boards looking for another opportunity to tell us all how much money you spend. Whatever.

dee says:
You doth protest too much. Or, you were just scanning the boards looking for another opportunity to tell us all how much money you spend. Whatever.

Dee, that was a very pathetic comment.. Teach yourself some manners, i am extremely tired of the holier then thou comments about people who have "large" homes, and now a comment about teaching values because some areas have a biased to expensive things..Don't measure a person by what they may or may not have..measure a person by their actions, how they treat people..Clearly you may not want to show yor children your smarta$$ comment in regard to my response, as it was classless...

It is funny because i have seen few if any posts about people criticizing or commenting about small homes or those who are less fortunate. It seems the only negativity revolves around those that have been fortunate enough or successful enough to have, and enjoy some of the finer things in life...I'd hate to think it's envy

and Dee-Dee says:

My question about the school was related MY values and MY choices.

Well I hope you find an area that shares your values, good luck in that endeavor.Hiding your children form either affluence or poverty is a very noble idea

qdognj,

I'm going to tell you a story about my son. I thought about whether I should make the post all last night. And, because it ultimately relates to the purchasing of two pieces of real estate, I believe it's on topic enough for the Forum.

DH & I made our son wait until he was 21 years old for his first car. We are not ogres.

When my son was not quite seven, I was diagnosed with cancer & given 50/50 odds of living to Christmas (it was February at the time). I had a lot of decisions to make including how I would raise my son for whatever time I had. I lost my mother when I was a teenager so I already knew how difficult it could be not having a parent around to offer advice & assistance. I went to work immediately to make my son indepenent, competent, & to have confidence in his decision making skills. I didn't feel I had the luxury of just pampering him with the idea there would be lots of time to teach him about life's choices.

He started getting a much increased allowance. With that allowance though he was expected to in this order: 1. save 10%; 2. donate 10% to our Church; 3. donate 10% to a charity of his choice; and 4. except for food, shelter, medical/dental pay for whatever he needed and/or wanted. Let me say, it's amazing what a seven year old is capable of understanding.

When he was twelve, he hounded me something awful for more money. I told him, "No". I said, "You'll need to find a way on your own to generate more income if you have more wants than your allowance provides for." And, he did just that. He told us he wanted to model. He was a very good-looking kid...blond, blue-eyes, lean, & athletic from being a 3-time Track/Field Junior Olympian. We told him if he maintained a "B" average in school we would give our permission & provide transportation. I made him appointments with the two agencies located in our town. He came home from those appointments with a contract. For the next seven years, he was a regular print model for Levi Strauss, Macy's, & Polo. By fourteen, he had expanded to videos & television doing commercials primarily but also things like 'America's Most Wanted'.

All during this time frame, his 10% savings had been designated for a car when he turned sixteen. Because of his job he had the needed money. But, then life interferred. At 15 1/2, he was given an opportunity to serve as a United States youth foreign Ambassador representing our state in the former Soviet Union (the summer the country imploded) for 4 months. Much of this trip was paid for by the State, however, he would also need quite a bit of personal funds. He wanted us to foot the bill. We said, "No". You must make a choice. You can accept this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or you can purchase a car. You don't have the money to do both. Life will be full of difficult choices. As parents, we saw it as a real life-skill learning experience. His choice was to go to the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union that summer, there were wide spread food shortages. Our son lived in Russian homes with regular Russian families. His letters home spoke of having cold hotdogs & peas for breakfast & that he hadn't had a piece of fresh fruit in weeks. He also said in his letters that he felt badly for the families that were so graciously providing him with food/shelter because they couldn't afford to feed an extra hungry 15 year old mouth. He also wrote that he walked by a bakery in Moscow every morning on his way to the embassy to start his work day. He'd look in the window & see that there wasn't a lot of bread available & the lines of people waiting to purchase were huge. He had American dollars in his pocket. He could have purchased every single loaf of bread in the bakery & gourged himself to fill that empty stomach. He never purchased a single roll. (As a parent, I'm very proud of that decision.) When he was in Kiev, things were even worse. He had to make do with one meal a day & it consisted of just what his hosts were able to grow on their allotted garden space. He had no meat for over a week once which he thought was inconceivable at the time.

He came home a wiser & more mature young man. He was not a child anymore. He was also carting the largest & heaviest green wool Russian full-length military coat I'd ever seen. It had been given to him from one of his host families as a farewell gift to take to America. (Our son had loaded his suitcases with presents to give his hosts from America.) Our son had not wanted to accept this gift. It was the only winter coat the man had & Moscow is cold in the winter. The generous nature of his hosts blew him away in his American self-absorbed nature. He'd learned way more than what they taught him at the embassy that summer.

When he started his senior year in highschool, the issue of the car returned in full-blown fury. He really wanted a car. We said, "No". It took until he was 21 before he had his part of our "car bargain" saved. So, for his 21st birthday, he got a bright red shiny new VW Pssst (or, whatever they are called).

Fast forward to his college graduation. He graduated with a degree in biology & a minor in chemistry. He'd long since stopped modeling. He said it was too frivolous for him to enjoy anymore after his summer watching the Russian people suffer. Instead, he'd worked at McDonald's flipping burgers. Within two months of graduation, he'd landed a good-paying job with an international pharmaceutical company.

As a young, single man we counseled him that he was going to be eaten alive on car insurance & taxes. We suggested he start looking to buy a piece of real estate. College had drained his savings account pretty well dry. (We'd paid for tuition, room/board, insurance, & he paid for books & incidental living expenses.)

So, we taught him about leverage. DH took him to the bank & co-signed for a loan against the value of his shiny, red VW. He took some of the loan proceeds & purchased a bed, a dresser, a kitchen table, & some kitchen equipment, & a few suits/dress shirts/dress shoes, etc. for his new job.

With the rest of the loan proceeds he went house shopping. Together with his fiance he found a condo that was perfect. It was an 18th century mansion that had been condominiumized into four units. He purchased a second floor unit with our blessing at age twenty-two. A year later, he married & they continued to live in the condo with their new puppy, Rueben.

Another year went by. He received a large job promotion but it required a move out-of-state. He sold his condo & made a tidy profit plus regaining his VW investment. He purchased with his wife the home they are now living in. That was 8 1/2 years ago & they are still living there with my 3 grandkids.

He's been fiancially independant since college graduation. He's an active member of his Church. He donates both time & money to local community activities. He coaches his daughter's soccer team. Other than his mortgage, he has no debt. His wife is a SAHM. I'm proud of him. And, I don't worry about him. He has excellent financial skills & has his emotions under control. He doesn't associate his self-worth with how many 'toys' he has. He's also thoughtful, kind, & caring. And, he's thanked us a hundred times for not giving in & buying that car for him when he was sixteen.

So, it's not that I disagree with your parenting choices. My parenting choices came about due to illness. For us, they worked very well to accomplish our goals of raising a self-sufficent & responsible adult. It's OK that people do things different than you do. Giving your child designer handbags is not the only successful way to raise a child. It's not 'our' way & it's OK that I acknowledge another person who feels the same way we do. There were no insults. Only acknowledgment of agreement. Nothing wrong with that.

/tricia

tricia, 1st of all, you and your husband should be extremely proud of your son..You have instilled in him some great values..I hope you realize that i was not picking out anyone in aprticular with my rant/response. I have no issues at all with the way people spend their $$$, raise their children,whether to buy or sell a home.

.What i do have a problem with is the seemingly non-stop bashing by posters about McMansions or how frivolous parents are in regards to their children..I have never initiated a rant about anyones values or such, though i will not tolerate people who bash others.I never try to impress anyone with what i have or don't have..And furthermore i am not impressed by anyone elses stuff/job/home, etc..Both my wife and i have come from very humble upbringings, and know that we have worked hard to get where we are..we diligently save for our children's college education, as we believe as parents, it is our duty to so, if you can afford it.We save for retirement, and we give generously to charities.The generalizations that are spewed here are incredulous.

My SIL lives in Peachtree City. Its very nice and probably the best family oriented community near Atlanta. The community is made up of mostly middle and upper middle class families. It is probably best know as a great place to raise children (which there are lots of). From what my SIL says (I don't know this for a fact), the schools there are some of the best in Georgia.

My SIL has lived there for 15years and loves it. In the beginning it was mostly pilots that lived there but that has changed as PTC has expanded. They have golf cart paths throughout the city so you don't need a car to go to the movies or out to eat. The police are very strict and have a low tolerance for disorderly conduct and public intoxication. They even go so far as writing DUI's for people driving golf carts intoxicated.

There is a lot to do there and many great restaurants, so you don't need to travel out of the city for a nice meal. They also have an outdoor concert hall that gets some good acts to perform. And what is even nicer, if you are into the performing arts, you can be in downtown Atlanta for an evening show within 30minutes.

Even though PTC is not the small quaint community it use to be, there is still a strong sense of community. Its not uncommon for a bunch of neighbors to get together in the cul-de-sac to have a cookout in the summer. And it is expected that parents are to be involved with their children's school.

The biggest negative to PTC is if you work beyond the downtown area. Heading downtown is an easy commute but going beyond that can be frustrating with the amount of traffic on the road. As you know, or will find out, most of the really good jobs are on the north side which makes PTC too far for commuting and maintaining your sanity.

I think PTC is a great place to raise children and a nice place to live.

(Lurch voice)

You rang????

I'm a north atlanta suburb girl, but I have done some poking around Peachtree City, and here are my impressions:

1. It looks like somebody took Disney World and stuck it south of Atlanta. Depending upon your perspective, this is either good or bad. The streets are *perfectly* manicured and tree lined. I'm guessing that the homeowner's associations around there are as tough as nails and very restrictive.

2. Has several what I call "hat trick" school systems, where the elementary, middle and high school are all top 20 in the state. If memory serves, rising star is the name of the good middle and high school.

3. I have some friends that live there, and if the one road leading out of there gets blocked with an accident, they're stuck for hours.

4. Most of the tech jobs are on the north side of Atlanta. A lot of people who live in PTC are pilots (hartsfield isn't too far away) or can work from home or travel alot (hartsfield, again.)

5. You have to buy a golf cart or you will be shunned. Kidding! But not really...

Any town is what you make of it. Give your kid a BMW or not, it's parenting values, not location that's important.

For every knucklehead that gives his text-messaging bubbleheaded daughter a high powered performance sportscar when she turns 16, there's one sensible one out there who makes his kid pay 50% of a 6 year old volvo sedan, manual transmission, no radio.

Guess which parents my kids have ;)

disney - I was waiting for you (she says in a sing song voice)! Thanks for your comments.

We've been to Kiawah which has similar landscaping. It does creep me out a bit.

Hubby will work out of the house and travel a lot from Hartsfield so traffic won't be an issue.

Sigh, unfortunately, any town is not what you make of it. Where we live right now is disturbingly racist and backward. My daughter is in a top notch academic program that is housed in the poorest, most troubled school in town so the "smart" kids will offset the test scores of the disadvantaged kids. The academics are great but her high school experience consists of gang fights and lock downs and code yellows and police barrelling into the school a few times a week.

BMW driving, Gucci carrying kids would be an improvement. But I'd rather not spend tens of thousands of dollars to move from one socially undesirable situation to another.

We will be visiting PTC in a few weeks. I'll let you know what we think.

gang fights,lock downs and code yellows?police barrelling into the school? Time to get out of there, your child sounds like she'd be successful in any school, so then the school environment would be a priority..And, personally given the choice(which you perceive as 2 evils), of affluence or risk of personal injury or safety, i think the choice is VERY obvious

My wife has a cousin who lives in PTC, and we found that there community was not a whole lot different than what we experienced up in Alpharetta when we lived there a few years ago.

One thing you will need to consider is the major impact of the Georgia drought and water shortage on PTC. There may be no impact, but you owe it to yourself to investigate where PTC gets its' water, and whether or not the efforts to reduce Lake Lanier outflows will have any impact on you.

qdognj-- are you not a stay-at home husband? If so, you probably hold a great deal of the daily routine of rasing your children. Your wife is earnig the income and you are in charge of the house.

McMansions are great-- if that is what you like. I too live in one but it does not define who I am. We can afford our house without problem, but as my children are growing I often think simpler would be better. Generally, less up-keep, lower taxes and utilities - - there are many advantages of living in a smaller home. Myself, and neighbors included, have pools, nice cars, manicured lawns but I think there is something to living simpler and often I wish we did. We have so much unused space in our home and you know what, we could live just as well with much less.

Just something to think about...

swimmer,yes, you are correct...I'd like to think of my home as a home, not a McMansion, which i find derogatory..And as you may have noticed in my many rants/posts, i could care less about what others have or don't have..Is my home TOO large? i don't think so, with 3 kids, it is about right, and there is plenty of space for the many visitors we have..The days of yore and simpler times, i am afraid, are long gone. I grew up in a very small home with 1 bath, and we all turned out fine for the most part..And as i mentioned in another thread, my grandparents would visit us,when i was young, and say what do you need a house this size for, to my parents..It is all perception, as my parents now say the same to me..lol...As far as upkeep, i do it , and have no complaints, as we "Chose" to have this home, so why complain about the chores!!!
When the kids eventually leave,though according to statistics, they return after college more and more these days, then we will evaluate our needs...

those of you say how the hell is this person posting ALL the time? I check my computer between my chores,lol..Just finished cutting the lawn(2 1/2 hours!!), and going to fold the laundry ;)

I just got back from a 4 day trip to Peachtee City. It is a wonderful place. One thing I noticed was that the drivers are very courteous - everywhere in PTC. If we were at a strip mall and getting ready to cross the parking lot to go to a store, the drivers would stop and allow us to cross.
I did not notice a lot of BMWs or similar cars in that area. We used to live in a very affluent area in the N Atlanta suburbs - and PTC did not have the volume of high cost cars at all compared to some N Atlanta areas.
There were lots of kids - more teens than younger kids. They seemed to be nice kids. Lots of them worked in the local stores and restaurants.
Shopping and restaurants are all over the place. One complaint is that there are rules on lights for commercial places. So the store signs have dim (barely visible) signs. It is hard to find a place at night if you are not familiar with the area. But I am sure it helps with light pollution so in the long run, it is probably a good thing.
There were some deer that crossed the road in front of our car. We stopped in time, as did other drivers.
golf carts are everywhere - but I think parents of teens are getting them golf carts instead of cars(costs less, they don't go as fast either). There are paths for the golf carts - you can go anywhere in PTC with them. Many folks use the golf carts.

The grocery stores are wonderful. I was envious of the fresh seafood at the grocery stores.
If I ever had to move to Atlanta area, I would choose PTC in a second.
I do agree with the other poster - the majority of high tech jobs in Atlanta area are in the northern suburbs.

Yuppoamma! Slide just 25 miles Southeast to Coventry (where the hit series "In the Heat of the Night" was filmed there are bargains to be had, in a year Metro Atlanta as we know it will be without water.

disneyrsh, "I have some friends that live there, and if the one road leading out of there gets blocked with an accident, they're stuck for hours."

Gee, that sounds like most of Atlanta. The North side is way more congested then PTC will ever be. Nothing is as bad or as unreliable as the 400 in the morning. And trying to go from Vinings to Dunwoody at 5pm can be an hour trip on the 285. I stayed with my SIL for 6months in PTC and never once was the 74 so congested that I could not make it to the Airport in less then 30min.

I commuted to Atlanta from 2000 to 2005 and stayed and worked on the North side. I like the Northside a lot and if I had to move to Atlanta, I would pick that area. However, if I had to commute to the Airport, nothing is better then PTC.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, there appears to be more congestion on the north side, but if you google some of the neighborhoods in PTC, there's one major thoroughfare in and out.

I really really like PTC, both for the schools and the community spirit, which can occasionally be terribly lacking in Atlanta, but I fear my somewhat discheveled/unconventional/passive agressive decorating style would get me kicked out of PTC :D

I live in Dunwoody, a suburb just OTP with fantastic access to public transportation, which we use all the time even though I complain when we take it as a family that it smells like pee and some people need to bathe more. My neighborhood is one of the few left in Dunwoody without a HOA, but I suspect as more and more homes crack the half million mark that those days may be numbered.

I think if you need connectivity to Hartsfield, living in PTC or somewhere with direct access to the Marta, like Dunwoody, Brookaven (be careful of the schools), or Buckhead (prrrriiiiiceeeeeeey!), is a good idea.

While I personally prefer a house with a big yard around it, I have no problem with people that like a lot of house with a little yard around it. To each their own, it makes you happy and it's no skin off my nose :)

I just don't like seeing my neighbors parading around in their red speedo underwear (the guy-I'm a girl)-our friends had that happen all the time! Nice when you can plant a few trees between you and mr Exhibitionist...

although, come to think of it, it may be against the HOA rules in PTC to do that. Kidding!!!!

disneyrsh, I live(d) in Dunwoody. Great house there going on the market soon. ;-)

Heh heh, tauphidelt, I've got my dunwoody "fixer upper-faller downer" house already, thanks, but I'm trying to talk my friends into moving out of gwinnett county (like we did 10 years ago, thank god)

You can post your MLS (though I'm notorious for my, um, honest critiques!).

I live in Marietta and LOVE my neighborhood. I have heard great things about PTC.

I'm trying to talk my friends into moving out of gwinnett county (like we did 10 years ago, thank god)

When my husband moved to Dunwoody it was the wilds. People looked at you like you were crazy for being "all the way out there". When we were house hunting Alpharetta was the hot new place with nary a tree bigger than my pinky to be found. Now with the expansion/widening of 400, who knew Dunwoody would be practically in-town living? ;-)

Monday is the big MLS day. I'll post it. You can pick it apart. Heck, you can even do a drive-by. LOL!