I don’t particularly want my kids to grow up here in Dallas. It’s not a terrible place, but it’s not good either. They are still young enough to move without screwing anything up too badly, but where would we go?
Maybe you’ve got kids, maybe you don’t but you’ve studied your friends’ kids, or maybe you were a kid once. Assuming you had a choice, where would you raise them and why? Conversely, is there anywhere you’d avoid?
I think it would be easier to help if you gave us a few more specifics about what you’re wanting for your kids? More open spaces? Woods to play in? Or a denser more urban environment which (presumably) allows them freedom to take a bus to places rather than await a driver’s license?
I have my own strong preferences in the above (and in fact live on the far western edge of DFW in order to meet those preferences), but I’m unsure what you’re aiming for. The Missus and I have lived in Washington (state), Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and a few places in Europe. We had a variety of choices in where to settle, and specifically chose the Fort Worth area mainly for raising a family.
I can give you some insight into the other areas, but it would help to know your specific preferences.
Most kids, barring unusual circumstances, do well growing up with their parents.
There are too many variables here to give and answer. I think it’s less about the exact particulars (“Kids need room to run around! Kids need museums!”) and more about finding a place that really fits the whole family, and where the parents are likely to really make use of what is out there.
Have you looked into moving to the Panhandle or West Texas?
Whenever I see job postings from cities in those regions, they make a point of saying it’s a great place to raise a family. :rolleyes:
When my daughter was born we were living in NYC. We had loved living there as young adults but quickly found it wasn’t someplace we wanted to raise a child. So, with the knowledge that we needed to move and that our only major criteria was that it had to be a fantastic place to raise kid, we started doing some research.
We researched schools/education, weather, crime, etc. and settled on a couple of different cities in a couple of different states. After a road trip to visit the places on our list we decided that the suburbs of Boston were going to be our best choice. We applied for jobs and were both quickly hired to decent companies and rented an apartment for a year while we learned about the area. In September we bought a house and we’ve been absolutely thrilled with our decision to move here so far. We have some outdoor space and about a million state parks, playgrounds, and beaches for her to get plenty of exercise. We are near Boston and all of the culture it provides (we are members of the Boston Museum of Science this year. Last year it was the New England Aquarium.) Best of all Massachussetts is rated #1 in the nation for education with many of the schools in the Boston suburbs being the best of the schools in the state.
Your needs as a family will be different than ours but your process in finding a place should be the same. Figure out your most important criteria in choosing a place to live and then do some research into finding the places that best fit that criteria. Best of luck!
When I posted this, I thought it woud be useful to get a list of people’s top (and bottom) places, then cull it based on our criteria. But you are right, the question is way too broad and it’s better to give some kind of outline to cut down on unnecessary wheel spinning.
If a place works for the adults, then it’s likely that the kids will be happy. And therein lies the problem. We don’t really know what we want. More below.
Good idea. What sources worked for you? The “best places to live” type stuff that I’ve found has not been useful.
Smartass. Coincidentally, I travel to west Texas occasionally for work and it’s really not what we want. So, good point: Don’t trust people with a vested interest in getting you to move somewhere.
Here’s an attempt at narrowing the field.
Want
Mostly temperate climate. Snow and heat are both OK, but Fargo and Phoenix are probably too much. Houston’s higher humidity and lower (but still high) temps are much more tolerable than Dallas’s long, hot, dry summer.
At least moderately large. More than +/-250,000 population, in the metro area, not necessarily in the particular municipality.
Opportunity for outdoor recreation. Not necessarily ski slopes right up in town, but just somewhere green and pretty to goof around for a couple hours after work. Dallas City parks are mediocre, and there are very few natural areas. It’s kind of flat and ugly here.
Forests, mountains, or water close enough for weekend or day trips. Man made lakes full of algae and drunk boaters don’t count.
Museums, zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, etc.
Good private schools, Montessori/IB or similar curricula. This is not negotiable. We both got good grades at good public schools in good school districts, and while they were safe, they didn’t provide much of an education, especially not serious college prep. Dallas has several academically excellent private schools, but they are terrifically expensive and selective.
Do Not Want
Insane cost of living. If it’s not possible to have decent quality of life without being wealthy, it’s out. Manhattan, for instance.
Don’t care
The performing arts.
Politics, religion, and sports. As long as you can make friends or have a business meeting without being subjected to, and expected to agree with, other peoples philosophies. This eliminates Oklahoma and Berkeley.
Conspicuous consumption. We don’t participate and don’t care, as long as it’s not a social obligation the way it is in Dallas. Again, do what you want, just don’t give me shit for driving the wrong car.
Well, I’m biased, but I’ll recommend the Greater Seattle area based on what you’re looking for. I’ve lived in the mid-West, the East, and traveled everywhere else. Bellingham to Olympia, and West to the Olympics, are all great areas.
We’ve vacationed there,
during the summer, it was really nice. How do you feel about the day length in winter? Clouds and rain don’t bug me at all, but I’m not sure about short days. Is it weird? I grew up in NYC and remember being bummed when it was getting dark before dinner.
Everyone handles it differently. I’m fine with it, but I get to travel a lot in the Winter so it’s not too oppressive. At the worst, it’s dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. But that’s only a month or two out of the year and the long summer days more than make up for it to me.
It’s never really too cold here or too hot. There is no problem with mosquitos. Seattle are Portand are great cities, (not perfect, but better than most) and there are many smaller communities that have a lot to offer within a hour of each.
Northeast Ohio is the place for you! The city of Hudson is pretty dope, but there are lots of other communities around here with all different housing price ranges and school levels. Brecksville, Beachwood, Jackson, Solon. Tons.
Golf, ski, “the emerald necklace” of parks, Lakes and lakes, and have we ever got weather!
I don’t raise any kids here but all of my friends seem to be doing a great job of it.
Well, I think my hometown is a great place to raise a family but I guess I’m a little biased. Columbia, SC - hot summers, but cheap living, two hours from the mountains or the beach and in town we have lovely parks and three rivers and all that business. I mean, it’s not a huge city, so it doesn’t have some of those amenities, but it does have the flagship university and state government. Frankly I think the public schools here are perfectly good but there are private options too, of course.
Well, I’m Canadian, and I won’t recommend you move up here since apparently you’re a puss about the cold and short winter days (although the bright side about the latter is that, where I live, it’s somewhat light here until 11 PM in the middle of summer!). 
Anyway, when I read your list of wants I immediately thought Portland. I’ve been there (and Seattle) several times and I’m pretty sure that’s where I would choose to live if I moved to the States. I think Portland has a little bit nicer weather but is maybe a little smaller, population-wise.
I’ve been in Colorado for 12 years now. I’m originally from the Chicago area.
I would highly recommend either the Boulder or Fort Collins areas here in Colorado. Both are growing, have plenty of job opportunities, have the healthy outdoor lifestyle Colorado is known for, and although we have 4 seasons, they are so much milder than you’d think by looking at the tv.
With both cities being college towns, you have better than average schools, plenty of cultural opportunities, and with Denver nearby, you have a national transportation hub which gets you anywhere quickly and relatively low cost.
Both cities are routinely on the ‘best places to live in America’ lists.
My younger son was in high school when we moved here, but I’d have been thrilled to have raised my boys here.
The Kansas side of the Kansas City metro is excellent in all those areas.
http://www.bloomberg.com/ss/08/11/1110_best_places_for_kids/17.htm
This is my suggestion too. Or perhaps the periphery of Denver or Colorado Springs. Very low humidity, and 4 seasons.
I’d throw out Chicago because of the schools, but at least the city and suburbs have a good proportion of parks. I’d throw out St. Louis and Detroit due to crime. Milwaukee and the suburbs can be nice, but the latter are painfully conservative. I would consider the smaller midwestern cities like Madison (too cold?), Des Moines, Fayetteville, Tulsa, Lawrence, and Cedar Rapids (perhaps too small).
Agreeing about Denver and its suburbs: nice place, healthy lifestyle.
Well, for us excellent public schools were an absolute must. For this we made use of greatschools.org as well as national education rankings by state and other sources. If private school is what you have your heart set on I don’t have much in the way of help for you there. We were adamant that we wouldn’t be going the private school route if we could help it.
We also wanted a cold, snowy climate. We are all cold weather people, even my three year old, who looked out the window this morning at the clear roads (all 115 inches of snow have mostly melted away at this point) and asked me if we could please have another blizzard soon! So when we were researching housing, schools, jobs, etc. we didn’t consider anywhere south of Colorado.
We needed to be near a big city because we are much more city mice than country mice. For that we basically just used a map and the population information on wikipedia to decide if a city was big enough for us. We wanted to be on the east coast because we love it here and prefer coastal life. We also wanted to be somewhere pretty liberal, politics-wise. We wanted to be somewhere with a decent number of jobs in both of our industries so neither of us would have to work a minimum wage job for a year while we switched career paths. We did some research into the biggest industries in the areas we thought we might like, though for the life of me I don’t remember where I found that information.
After all of that we narrowed it down to 3 or 4 choices and started visiting places when we had the chance. We settled on Massachusetts pretty quickly after visiting and started job searching immediately. My husband applied for five jobs, interviewed with three of them, and got hired on at the one he liked best all in the span of about 5 weeks. My job search was a little weird but I was employed in MA in less than 3 months.
My aunt lives in Ft. Collins, and has lived there for a long time (since the 80s?) She is one of those very sour people who literally dislikes almost everything.
So if she has lived there this long she must like it, and it must be pretty awesome 
Going by these criteria, I’d say Arkansas or Missouri would be your best bet. You’d have to be picky about schools in those areas, but good ones can be found. I tell DFW newcomers that I-30 is our dirty little secret, and we built it so we could all get to Arkansas on long weekends. It is, quite literally, one of the most beautiful states in the US, and the cost of living is very low.
Agreed. But when introducing folks to our area, I maintain that Texans build their cities in the ugly parts, and leave the beautiful areas alone. I know it’s not exactly true, but you can find some amazing places here just by driving a few hours.
A friend of mine recently moved to a small town in Iowa not far from Grinnell - Montezuma, I think? - so his daughter could be raised in an area with good schools and reasonable values.