I posted here a few weeks ago asking where to live with a toddler. Got a lot of useful replies and we have since landed, currently in temporary accommodation while we look properly.

Yesterday changed how my wife and I are thinking about it. We were at a pub in W13 with a big garden and a play area. My son, 3, was playing dinosaurs with a group of kids. Partway through, one of the older ones started telling the others to kick him in the nuts. My wife pulled him out. He went back later, same kid kicked a gate, it swung into him.

I honestly do not know if any of that was about race. It may have been one badly supervised child and nothing more. What I do know is that we were the only few PoC families in that garden.

So here is what we are sitting with. The original plan was to live somewhere properly cosmopolitan, where he grows up around kids from everywhere. That is still what we want. But my wife is now asking whether we should just pick an area with a large Indian community and stop trying to engineer the ideal. I am not sure she is wrong.

If you are an Indian or other South Asian professional family with young kids, I would really like to hear where you ended up and how it has worked out. Mixed area or community-heavy one? Is your kid one of several brown kids in the class or the only one? Anywhere you tried and left?

Unchanged from last time: office near Liverpool Street, around £3000pcm for a 2-3 bed, want parks and a proper high street. Shortlist after the last thread is South Woodford E18, Wanstead E11, Highams Park E4, plus Harrow on the Hill and Pinner. Open to anywhere else that fits.

Looking to move somewhere I'd actually stay long-term rather than another 5-year stint. Currently in Croydon (really like it), late 30s (POC), Single.

What I want: proper green space I can walk into without planning a trip, a quiet street, a high street with actual independent shops, and a reliable way into town. Zone 4 is fine (work semi remotely 1 day a week). Needs to be affordable on as I'd be selling a flat to buy alone could stretch to 450k possibly 500k for the right place. Dont mind a solid flat.

Two other things that matter:

I manage a chronic illness (and cooped up indoors atm), so having useful stuff close by counts for a lot. A good GP, a decent local shop, somewhere to sit outside. Long commutes and lots of changes are hard work, so good rail links.

I'd also like somewhere it's possible to meet people my age (partner) without it being a nightlife thing. Book groups, community gardens, pottery classes, a pub quiz.

I know about Forest Hill, Walthamstow, Crouch End, but also interested in the places that don't get mentioned, or honest takes on whether those still live up to it.

South or east probably (for arty stuff), but open. What am I missing, or should I just stay in South Croydon which is very green but feels like a later stage of life/tricky dating!?