Florida mamas, tell me about the Orlando area..

[blessedmama59]

Hubby and I are seriously considering moving to Orlando..specifically Ocoee. His sister has lived there for years and she has offered to let us live there until we are established and have money saved for a house.  We both believe that there are TONS more opportunities there..better job opportunites, more diverse environment to raise our children, etc.

Anyway, I am just curious what the area is like as far as natural parenting/living, homebirth, homeschooling, etc. We have a 2 yo and a 3 mo, and we plan on homeschooling. I want to be sure there are resources for that as far as homeschooling groups and co-ops. We are also considering having one more child and I want to be sure that there are nice birth options (besides hopsital), preferably homebirth. Also, are there many mom or LLL meet-ups in the area?

I'm also worried about hurricanes..lol His sister said the last bad hurricane was Andrew.

Overall, I just want to be sure this is a good place to live and raise a family. It is a HUGE move for us, so I want us to be sure it is for us. I knew I could come here and get honest answers from you mamas.

TIA! :)

[FloridaBorn]

I live about an hour's drive West of Orlando, so I can't really speak to living there, but I'll tell you what I know.  There's A LOT of urban sprawl  :(   Endless strip malls and gated communities.  That kind of landscape is not for me, and may not be for you either, that's why I'm telling you!  Of course there are some pockets of nice, artist friendly type communities but living there is expensive.

Florida as a whole is suffering from massive unemployment.  If I were you, I would definitely do my homework for job opportunities beforehand.  My sister-in-law was unemployed for over a year and recently got a job for a not-so-living wage.... and she has a four year degree. 

There ARE a few birthing centers in Orlando.  The midwife who delivered my daughter owns one of them now.

Hurricanes?  LOL, I'd be more worried about our governor cutting funding for education and privatizing the prison system!  Orlando is pretty insulated because it's in the middle of the state, so any hurricane winds would have the chance to die out a bit before coming through.  I think there was mostly heavy rain and some wind damage (read, big old trees dropping limbs) during the hurricanes of 2004.  Any real Floridian's hurricane action plan begins at the liquor store anyway.

Is Ocee in the country?  Yes, there ARE small towns left in Florida!  There are some great natural springs and parks very close to the Orlando area.  St. Johns river is right there, too.

I tend to be more of a glass half empty kind of person, so hopefully others will chime in who actually live in the area who can point you to some specific resources!!

[KoalaMommy]

I love Orlando, we lived there for just over 2 years!  It's so great, you can take the kids to the playground year-round.  Most playgrounds are covered, so you can even go in summer, and there are some splash pads, which were never too busy to enjoy!

It's not a very crunchy area, I didn't meet a lot of families like ours, but it has a good quality of life.  We took our kids to Dr. Franz, her office is on the south side of Orlando, it'd probably be a similar distance for you as it was for me, not convenient, but she is a homeopath as well as an MD, so you get a really good balance of care.  She advocates an alternative vaccine schedule.  And her written info can come off as confrontational, but my experiences with her were totally opposite, she was caring and supportive.  I always felt like she was on my side!  I tried another practice, Pediatrics Plus, before switching to her because they were highly recommended here, but I found them horrible.  They were not very accepting of delayed vaccines and one doctor told me I shouldn't bring my kids out in public till they were fully vaxed because with all the foreigners coming to Orlando they could get measles and die.  Another doctor at Peds Plus (a supposedly breastfeeding friendly practice) told me to stop breastfeeding my very sick 9 month old and give only clear fluids for 24 hours.  I quizzed him on this advice because I was pretty sure it was wrong, and he kept insisting.  But breastmilk is considered a clear fluid, so I didn't listen to him and switched over to Dr. Franz!

We were there for 3 hurricane seasons and only got 1.  They don't really hit that often, and they are much worse on the coast than inland.  Flooding is the main concern, but we didn't have any flooding, close, but not quite.  I am much more terrified of the tornado seasons we face twice a year now than the hurricanes in Florida!

[hippiemombian]

I live near Orlando and I wouldn't reccommend living in Orlando itself, there are nice surrounding cities/towns. Employment can be hard to find though depending on what you do, so I would do research about that. I homeschool my daughter and there are a few co-ops and what not near by.