real life

The many things city slickers will never understand about living in the country.

There’s nothing quite like a good ol’ fashioned rivalry to get people worked up.

Sydney and Melbourne, the Capulets and the Montagues, pineapple or no pineapple on pizzas, Trump and pretty much everyone – the list goes on.

And yet, nothing quite compares to the rivalry between city slickers and country folk.

The country residents of Reddit have perfectly summed up everything people from the city just DO NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT COUNTRY LIFE.

And it’s expectedly glorious.

Your commute to work is not far. It just ISN’T

If you live in the city and are complaining about your 25-minute commute being SO FAR, then it’s time to stop.

“It’s nothing for me to drive four hours one way to get to see a specialist if I am having a health issue. That’s eight hours of driving to see the doctor for one 15 minute appointment,” writes EarlyBird94.

“We always tell people that are passing through to be sure to make sure your car is full of petrol, use the bathroom, and get anything you might want to eat or drink now, because there is nowhere along the way to really stop and do that,” Querce adds.

Technology is, err, a little different

“I grew up in a tiny town in the South,” writes Just_Call_Me_Mavis. “One weekend, I was visiting from uni and pulled up behind a guy on a horse waiting at the stop light. I was like ‘Wow. When did we get a stop light?’

“Apparently we used to have two stop lights. The other was strung between two buildings. One of the buildings burned down so they just put up stop signs.”

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CWalston108 can relate, writing “I’m also from a one stop light town. Except it breaks all the time, so they put up stop signs.”

LISTEN: Why we’re going to miss Nashville so much. (Post continues…)

There is literally no point to locking your house

No level-headed city slicker would ever leave the house unlocked, often even when you’re actually there. But in the country, turns out there’s kind of no point.

“Living in the country, there’s no point locking your house,” writes Atsinged. “They’ll just break a window or kick in a door. Hell, they could chop through the wall with an alarm blaring and still nobody would hear.”

“All you’ve succeeded in doing is inconvenience a burglar by five minutes and, more likely, accidentally lock yourself out of the house again.”

Countrygal also adds, “Hard to lock the doors if you haven’t seen the front door key in 10 years. Besides what if somebody needs some milk or a cup of sugar?”

Traffic is non-existent… unless there’s a tractor nearby

Sure city slickers might have to deal with horrific peak hour traffic, but living in the country comes with its own set of infuriating inconveniences.

Steviah508 notes that in the country, “traffic is almost never a thing. But waiting behind a tractor that’s going 20 km an hour (if he’s a real leadfoot) totally is.”

“And the joys of driving on gravel roads!” adds Codeverity. “Rattling along, hoping that gravel doesn’t fly up and hit the windshield, and loving it when the roads are freshly oiled so they’re not so dusty. Or being in a house and knowing someone is coming because you can see the dust in the distance.”

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What actually counts as a ‘first world problem’

While all of us experience #firstworldproblems, it’s time for city people to acknowledge that country folk have got it a bit tougher.

“Lose power in a storm? Better not flush the toilet, your well pump is out too,” writes Jedi Bean.

“First world problems is filling up the bathtub with water before a storm so that you’ll have water if the power doesn’t come back for a few days.”

 "Lose power in a storm? Better not flush the toilet, your well pump is out too."

Moovlin agrees, writing "Yeah I'm renting a house in town, power went out for a week, took me a day to realise we had running water. Took me three more to realise we also had hot water AND natural gas too."

And the spur of the moment snack runs you complain about coz you'll have to put pants on for the 15-minute walk to the supermarket? Yeah, nah mate.

"What city folk don't understand is, you go grocery shopping in town on Monday (or whatever day) but then Wednesday night, if you get a strong craving for Ben & Jerry's ice cream, well you're not getting any," writes CowboyLaw.

"Because it's a half-hour drive into town and the only grocery store there closed at 6:00pm. There is no, 'I don't want to eat this, I'll just order a pizza'. There is nowhere to just go grab something to eat, unless you want to drive 30 minutes - you're cooking or having a sandwich!"

Do you live in a rural community? What things do city slickers always get wrong about life in the country?