Where's a great place to raise a family--sell me on your town! - Page 2

[dentmom3]

Ditto to the western Mass area! Lots of great colleges lends diversity to the area, liberal politics, beautiful area, hiking, biking, farmer's markets, organic CSAs, homeschoolers and unschoolers and private schoolers and breastfeeders - lots of what you are looking for!

We are about an hour south of the area that I think you would want to look at, Amherst-ish. It is a great region.

I am also familiar with New Hampshire and areas of Vermont. NH is a great place and very 'live and let live' (the state motto is live free or die after all) but I have heard NH folk refer to VT as all 'hicks and hippies' so the people in NH aren't all enlightenment and acceptance. And diversity is non existent, at least in most towns.

[luv my 2 sweeties]

Do take a look at Michigan. I'm from mid-Michgan (Lansing) -- not quite as crunchy/liberal as Ann Arbor, but still plenty of that to be found, as a pp mentioned. (Housing here is much cheaper than Ann Arbor, with plenty of rural areas within a resonable commuting distance. For a lovely but not hick-ish small town, check out Mason.) I have lots of friends who don't vax, we have some great organic food options, an active community garden network, and a free-standing birth center, which is the hub of a very active circle of moms who share many of your values. I'm more active in homeschool circles myself, but I've heard that the birth center moms group is very cool. If you choose to send your children to school, we have public schools of choice and a number of charter schools to choose from. If you choose to homeschool, there are *lots* of homeschoolers running the gammut from religious conservatives to crunchy liberals and more than a few folks who straddle both categories! You'll find a few organic eating, non-vaxing, sling wearing religiously conservative Christians, believe it or not. (These folks are not necessarily politically conservative, though they may be. In any case, it's nice to have people around who defy stereotyping. )

Michigan State University is in this area (East Lansing) which provides all the cool university town stuff. Lansing is the state capitol as well, so there are government and government-associated jobs, non-profits, etc. The weather is O.K. Not as great as some places, but on the up side, we are one of the lowest risk states for natural disasters, and the upper portion of the state and the lakes make for beautiful, fabulous, affordable vacationing within reasonable driving distance.

The biggest downside to Michigan right now would be the jobs market -- not so hot at the moment. If you decide you like Michigan (any city here), either secure a job first, or be pretty darn sure there is a demand for your skills.

I attended college in Western Mass (Mount Holyoke), so I'll share a little of my experience of that area as well. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! If you like Vermont/NH, you'll probably like Western MA. The only thing I didn't like about it was that people took themselves a bit too seriously for my taste. I think it's a New England thing. Otherwise I loved it -- the landscape, the atmosphere, the politics, etc. DH and I may have settled there if we could have found jobs. Jobs could be an issue in that region as well, depending on your profession and how far you are willing to commute. I was never a parent there, however, so I can't speak much to the "raising a family" issue.

Have fun looking at all your options!