Is Adelaide more family friendly?

[Guest sluggy]

Hi all,

 

This is a great place for information and help/advice on Adelaide, where we intend to end up at the end of the year. Well done guys and thanks.

 

I have done a lot of reading in the sister site PIO, and appreciate that people wish to give a balanced view..this can only be a good thing. However, i did start to get a bit downhearted after reading the negatives - crime, rudeness, anti-social behaviour etc, and thought to myself 'blimey, i get that here anyway' - and i live in a quite affluent area (St Albans) it doesn't matter.

Now i certainly did not have the rose tinted glasses on - that is something my wife and i agreed right from the start.

 

What i did notice though is that with all the talk of crime and anti-social behaviour Adelaide did not get a mention! This may be because you guys are just keeping schtum..however, it seems more likely that Adelaide is indeed a more family-friendly, pleasent, welcoming place than say Cairns or especially Queensland.

 

I know it may be hard to be un-biased, but i would appreciate your views.

 

Thanks all,

 

Martin, Edith, Megan, Kieran, and DAMIEN!! er..i mean..I mean Ewan

[Guest louiesmum]

Hi

Welcome to PIA. I have to say its comming up for two years since we visited Adelaide (we now have visas just trying to sell house less said!!) but my overall view was that it was quite a friendly family orientated place (I think where ever you live there will have an element of "Hoons!!" because thats human nature & nowhere is perfect). The people I know who have gone to Adelaide, there now comming up 3 years are really happy overall. I dont think you'll know yourself until you go. hope this helps a little, only my opinion I'm sure you'll get lots more. Good Luck

[suzer]

Adelaide is very family friendly. I notice this as someone who is childfree by choice;) I get that impression also from hearing about my husband's upbringing there (he who did a lot of the hooning himself;) If that's what you're looking for, Adelaide is probably a good choice.

[The Monaghans]

We've been here for six months now and I have to say that I don't think crime is anywhere near as bad here. There IS crime, of course there is, but it's just not on the scale of other places. I think Adelaide's biggest problem is car crime, we live in a quiet suburb but sometimes we can hear the hoons racing down the main roads in the wee small hours. Most mornings you'll see tyre tracks all over the roads. There's petty crime as well, mainly graffitti and the like but I'm far happier bringing up my children here than in Birmingham or Manchester or wherever!

[suzer]

We've been here for six months now and I have to say that I don't think crime is anywhere near as bad here. There IS crime, of course there is, but it's just not on the scale of other places. I think Adelaide's biggest problem is car crime, we live in a quiet suburb but sometimes we can hear the hoons racing down the main roads in the wee small hours. Most mornings you'll see tyre tracks all over the roads. There's petty crime as well, mainly graffitti and the like but I'm far happier bringing up my children here than in Birmingham or Manchester or wherever!

 

As I said, that would be my husband;) Just kidding, although I have heard many stories of his 'hooning' as a teenager (the worst is over now). It seems to be a big past-time in Adelaide but I put that down to the fact that there's f all to do there for the youngins. If I did have kids, I wouldn't stand for that at all, but it's a completely different culture there in respect to what is acceptable behaviour...I think it's hillbilly ridiculousness, but Adelaide can be fairly 'country-fied'

[Guest Rob and Clare]

I think Adelaide is very family friendly, i can't say compared to other Australian cities but compared to the UK, definately. We lived in Lichfield a conservative area north of Birmingham and if you saw kids playing it would be in large groups and consisting of generally just hanging around. But here there seems to be family cricket matches in the parks, family bike rides, and even going to watch an AFL match people get there hours early and have a BBQ, bottle of wine while the kids play. Can't ever imagine that at West Brom. In fact here is so family friendly the opposite is true and as a couple for a romantic meal you have to pick your venue carefully as there will be children in most cafe's, pubs and restuarants.

 

As liz said though, there is crime, but it is petty and the hoons in cars is possibly the worst you will see. You will see teenagers outside the cinema's hanging around, particularly the ones in the shopping centres on a thursday, but they're no-where near as threatening. Best way to gauge how good or bad it is here is look at the news paper website and look at the headlines compared to your local paper, http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/.

 

The biggest down side to life here with a family, is drugs... Apparently Adelaide is pretty bad, whether it's worse than the UK i don't know, but i've never met so many people before who are quite so open about it, maybe i was just sheltered from it before.

[suzer]

When you say there are many more people open to drugs do you mean hard or soft drugs?

[Guest Rob and Clare]

When you say there are many more people open to drugs do you mean hard or soft drugs?

Just the soft drugs.

 

this is what a police spokesman recently said about drug testing on the roads :

 

"It's been suggested that South Australia is the drug capital, or Adelaide is the drug capital of Australia," he said.

"I think that's probably a little harsh but what it does tell us is that drugs are very prevalent in our society and a lot of people are driving under the influence of drugs.

 

I don't want to put anyone off, and no-one has ever offered me any (may be i look like an informer) and I've still never seen any, even in the clubs.

[suzer]

Honestly, I don't know that there is a more relaxed attitude in Adelaide than there is anywhere else. Weed certainly isn't considered a big deal. Not that I'm agreeing with the attitudes I have encountered (I think once people get to a certain age, they should get past childish things), but I don't know they are too different than to anywhere else in the world, much less the rest of Australia.

[Guest Rob and Clare]

Hi Suzer,

 

I think your right, it's nothing that bad, and like you said with the kids having F all to do, particularly away from the city, plus the fact upto a couple of years ago you could grow weed legally in Adelaide creates a climate where it's common.

 

Personally I'm a lager/wine user, and need a fix each friday and saturday night, some sundays, a couple of mondays and occasionally tuesday's, wednesday's thursday's... ha ha

[suzer]

lmao:) we'll have to get together for a drinkie when i get there.

 

when did the weed rule change...i thought that was a myth that it was legal to grow for personal use?

 

Hi Suzer,

 

I think your right, it's nothing that bad, and like you said with the kids having F all to do, particularly away from the city, plus the fact upto a couple of years ago you could grow weed legally in Adelaide creates a climate where it's common.

 

Personally I'm a lager/wine user, and need a fix each friday and saturday night, some sundays, a couple of mondays and occasionally tuesday's, wednesday's thursday's... ha ha

[Guest Devon]

Hi Suzer

Hope your hubbie wasn't the kind of hoon that gave me a frightening 20 mins the other night! Ruined a great night out! Was travelling home and hoons kept trying to force me off the road!!!!

[Guest Rob and Clare]

lmao:) we'll have to get together for a drinkie when i get there.

 

when did the weed rule change...i thought that was a myth that it was legal to grow for personal use?

Cool, look forward to a shiraz, beer, followed by a few cocktails.. We're very classy. ha ha

 

Apparently it was in the 80's when the law changed, i was told nearly everyone used to grow it. I reckon it would have been like Amsterdam back then.....

[suzer]

Hi Suzer

Hope your hubbie wasn't the kind of hoon that gave me a frightening 20 mins the other night! Ruined a great night out! Was travelling home and hoons kept trying to force me off the road!!!!

 

lol nah. we're not back in adelaide yet...plus, i don't even think he did obnoxious stuff like that when we was a youngin. he still builds and races cars for fun though:skeptical:

[suzer]

Cool, look forward to a shiraz, beer, followed by a few cocktails.. We're very classy. ha ha

 

Apparently it was in the 80's when the law changed, i was told nearly everyone used to grow it. I reckon it would have been like Amsterdam back then.....

 

wow, and you wonder why people have a more relaxed attitude. some things that are purely cultural differences are shocking to the rest of us at times;)

 

i miss english beer:(

[Guest salisbury massive]

I think the Police say that because you can grow Marajuana here legally. I understand you can grow 3 plants for personal use. Now these plants could be 9 feet tall by 6 feet wide if you want. you do get into trouble for supplying and if the police catch you with any on your person you'll be in trouble too. I think it all comes down to personal use and I know when you get stopped for breath tests they test for drugs as well.

 

Lots of people I know smoke soft drugs as a common thing. My daughters friends dad owns a night club on Hindley Street and he tells me stories that make me determined she'll never set foot in a club in her life!!!!!!! I know thats not possible but I can try. however most people I know are very careful about what they smoke in relation to kids being around. Well tey are when MY kids are around, maybe its because they know my feelings on the subject in relation to the kids being about. I think its just an accepted part of life here.

 

I personally think its fine here and I came from a very quiet, low crime, afluent area. There is quite a lot of graffitti, though i notice more down south than the north. However there is a lot more hoon driving about up North, especially around the Elizabeth, Davoren Park areas, most roads have tyre marks on them, its just life here.

 

Jo

[Guest Diane]

I'd say it's family friendly in terms of kids being accepted just about everywhere, and there are a lot of family events going on - like someone mentioned, beach/park cricket with the whole family joining in, family walks/bike rides etc. You certainly don't seem to get the 'Kevin the Teenageer' types here either - all the teens I've met have been polite and chatty and this confidence to talk to people of all ages is really nice to see. One of my son's 11-year old friends called round the other day, whilst my son was out playing tennis (at the free tennis courts, with my husband) and he stayed and chatted to me for almost an hour.

 

You can do a lot of stuff for free or very cheaply, here in Adelaide, whether that's because of the climate, or the facilities, or just the slower pace of life, I'm not sure, but as an example, as a family (kids are 10 and 13) on Sunday we cycled along Linear Park to a Par 3 golf course about 6km away, hired a bag of clubs and all of us had great fun trying to get the little white round thing in the teeny weeny holes! There were a couple of teenage lads behind us, and they didn't gripe at all about us holding them up (we did let them play thru eventually!) - even giving us a couple of spare balls when my son's got lost.

 

Whereas my daughter's old friends in the UK spend their weekends hanging around the shopping malls, eating MacDonalds, my daughter will be over at a friends house for a swim, or out playing tennis, or on a bike ride with friends, or walking the dog in the park. I'm not saying the hanging around thing doesn't happen here, just that there are more options.

 

D