Raising Kids in Southwest Florida

Any long-time listener or reader of News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams can tell you one thing for sure: she LOVES this place. Although she’s not a born native, she’s quick to defend her status as a true Southwest Floridian with a reminder that she got here as quickly as she could. Despite her implacable fascination and admiration for the region’s people, rich history and wild spaces, she occasionally questions whether raising her children here has been the best decision, but it doesn’t take much to put those concerns to rest, as she tells us in this week’s essay.