House hunting isn't a particularly kid-friendly activity, but buying a house isn't something I care to embark upon without extensive research, so house hunt (and neighborhood-stalk) I must! So how to keep the kids none the wiser happy on my quest?
Take no trips (with kids) for the sole purpose of house-hunting. Every Monday is "Try Out A New Playground Day", or, to be more accurate, "Mommy Meanders Through Neighborhoods She's Scouted on Craigslist or ZipRealty". Everybody's happy!
I usually take the "back way" or an "alternate route" to various spots. At some point I vowed to take a different route every time! I never would have known about that cool little strip along North Loop if I hadn't gone "the long way" - which actually turned out to be "the short way", and is a quiet and efficient cross-town route I now use several times a week, thus immediately breaking my resolution, but hey, sometimes I just want to get where we're going.
Good music. As I leave the house, I've been known to call out, "Hey, why don't you pick out a cool CD for us to listen to in the car on our way to..." Mini-Pear is so happy singing along, that she doesn't notice or care that we left the house 20 minutes early.
Dangle carrots. Some people call it bribing, I call it "trying a new place for lunch" or "chasing down a most excellent ice-cream truck".
The old scavenger hunt trick! Ah...back in the day, I used this at many an art museum or gallery or little shop I wanted to explore with the ever-amenable-to-quiet-indoor-activities Mini-Pear. I know better than to even try this with D'anjou, but he will accompany me on many a neighborhood walk or bike ride "to look for cats (or dogs, or chickens, or bicycles)" while I scope out the ratio of backyard chicken coops to front yard raised vegetable beds or sagging and mildewed front porch couches to earnest young vegan single-speed cyclists.
I will find it! The perfect house! It will be neither too big or too small! There will be a shaded park within walking distance! Bus routes! Marked bike lanes on the major thoroughfares! My neighbors will tend their yards diligently enough to keep the rodents out of the woodpiles, but not to the degree where I will get the stink eye for the inevitable accumulation of outdoor toys! I want to be able to walk to useful retail (grocers and indie hardware stores trump wine bars or vintage clothing shops)!
And when I find it, I will stop with the egregious over-use of exclamation points.
