Raising a City Girl

I am reminded every day of just how amazing and fortunate Harlan is to grow up in a city full of life and culture. She was just nine months old when we moved to the city, which was too young to remember any of her life in the suburbs.

At merely 2 years old she has lived in this concrete jungle for most of her life. Riding the bus, using her stroller as her main mode of transportation, and apartment living is all she knows. I was blatantly reminded of just how much of a city girl she really is on our recent trip down south.

Living in the city, there are a lot of things that we are “sheltered” from that suburbanites see everyday. It wasn’t until just a couple of weeks ago that I realized our city lifestyle may also be hindering Harlan.

Harlan is just at the age that she recognizes fear. She is very aware of noises outside and will let you know if a noise scares her. Most of the time she is scared because something startles her, but just recently, everyday household objects have come to scare her the most.

In Hilton Head, Harlan saw something that fascinated her, yet scared her at the same time. I saw her standing at the window staring down in amazement at the ground below. As she called me over to show me her new found treasure I looked down to see a man mowing the grass on a riding lawn mower. Having lived in the suburbs for many years and see thousands of people mow their lawns, this wasn’t that appealing to me. It wasn’t until then that I realized Harlan had never seen a lawn mower before. We don’t see them in the city and this was the first time that she recognized it was something new and interesting.

As we made our way downstairs to take a closer look the loud noises and grass everywhere she was terrified. Clinging onto me for dear life.

As we made our way through the next two weeks I was amused at how many “new” household objects scared her. She would cover her ears at the sound of the dishwasher, garbage disposal, and washing machine {all things we are not fortunate to have living here.} She wouldn’t dare step outside until the garage door was all the way up. The doorbell ringing sent her running straight for my arms instead of seeing who was at the door.

In the city the sounds of jack hammers and sirens fill her ears with no fear, yet these small little noises leave her scared and clutching to me more than ever before.

Although we know our city lifestyle isn’t forever, Harlan has made it blatantly obvious that for right now, maybe the concrete jungle is where she was meant to be.