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The politicians and the cities here are in MN are getting way too crazy for us. Have always heard great things about Iowa and am thinking about moving us down that way. Need to be north of Des Moines so we can still take our daughter to her orthopedic hospital in St. Paul occasionally. I'm an x-ray tech specializing in CT scan, wife is a homemaker, have 4 kids, 2 are autistic. We also need our kids to be back in school full time and in person - badly. Has anyone from MN made the move to Iowa and how did it work out for you?
What is your max drive time from St. Paul? What are your family's hobbies/interests/needs? Do you care about size of city?
Would like to keep it under 4 hours. We just need good medical care and schools that have experience with special needs kids. Have mostly lived on the far outskirts of major cities but would love to go completely rural if we weren’t too far from basic stuff like the medical, schools, grocery, etc. We no longer want or need to be close to big city perks like entertainment and such....would drive to those as necessary from now on. We’re basically homebodies....still like to utilize libraries and such.....older kids like hands on things such as word working, welding, one of them wants to be a vet. The main problem we need resolved now is the kids need to be back in school. The governor in MN is using the virus to keep them home doing distance learning which is completely useless and unacceptable to us. We have 2 kids nearing graduation and do not want them to miss out on the remainder of their school experience from the social and educational aspect. They're talking about letting the elementary kids go back but every time they do they pull the plug and wind up going back to distance learning. As for my high schoolers, they will probably not go back for the remainder of this school year by the looks of it. We cannot live like this. All the "experts" (Fauci, CDC) who supposedly dictate the science we're supposed to be following have said it's totally safe for kids to be in school, so we need to be where that's the case.
Last edited by Tyryztoll; 12-17-2020 at 07:13 AM..
Would like to keep it under 4 hours. We just need good medical care and schools that have experience with special needs kids. Have mostly lived on the far outskirts of major cities but would love to go completely rural if we weren’t too far from basic stuff like the medical, schools, grocery, etc. We no longer want or need to be close to big city perks like entertainment and such....would drive to those as necessary from now on. We’re basically homebodies....still like to utilize libraries and such.....older kids like hands on things such as word working, welding, one of them wants to be a vet.
Welcome to the free state of South Dakota. Drive distance from Sioux Falls is 230 miles (3 1/2 hours). First rate healthcare facilities easily at a par or better than the Twin Cities. Cost of living far less than there. Taxes are much less. Many rural towns around Sioux Falls where it costs even less to live. Housing market 30+ miles outside Sioux Falls drops like a rock. You won't believe what you can buy here for comparable homes against where you're at now. More restaurants per capita than nearly anywhere in the U.S. and guess what, they're allowed to be open, but using common sense social distancing guidelines. Our economy has survived the pandemic stronger than most anywhere in the country. The governor had the good sense to balance the safety measures against the tremendous destruction caused by businesses closings, unemployment, and the accompanying social issues.
Now for those that want to point at Covid-19 in the state, it's dropping and California's is going through the roof. So much for draconian shutdowns. There are stats all over the place pointing to one direction or the other in the U.S. and these can be argued ad nauseum. I'll take what we did here for the overall good of our citizens versus most any other state.
Welcome to the free state of South Dakota. Drive distance from Sioux Falls is 230 miles (3 1/2 hours). First rate healthcare facilities easily at a par or better than the Twin Cities. Cost of living far less than there. Taxes are much less. Many rural towns around Sioux Falls where it costs even less to live. Housing market 30+ miles outside Sioux Falls drops like a rock. You won't believe what you can buy here for comparable homes against where you're at now. More restaurants per capita than nearly anywhere in the U.S. and guess what, they're allowed to be open, but using common sense social distancing guidelines. Our economy has survived the pandemic stronger than most anywhere in the country. The governor had the good sense to balance the safety measures against the tremendous destruction caused by businesses closings, unemployment, and the accompanying social issues.
Now for those that want to point at Covid-19 in the state, it's dropping and California's is going through the roof. So much for draconian shutdowns. There are stats all over the place pointing to one direction or the other in the U.S. and these can be argued ad nauseum. I'll take what we did here for the overall good of our citizens versus most any other state.
Never thought of that. So I take it all the kids in SD are in school full time?
Never thought of that. So I take it all the kids in SD are in school full time?
Not all the kids. Many (maybe most) school districts have online learning set up for students that want it. The same is true in Iowa as per my son, who teaches there. At one point the school he taught in closed for 2 weeks, then after re-opening fully 1/3rd of his classes were still learning online. As you might guess, his workload because of this increased greatly.
Not all the kids. Many (maybe most) school districts have online learning set up for students that want it. The same is true in Iowa as per my son, who teaches there. At one point the school he taught in closed for 2 weeks, then after re-opening fully 1/3rd of his classes were still learning online. As you might guess, his workload because of this increased greatly.
That's fine with me as long as my kids have the option of actually being in school full time.
Would like to keep it under 4 hours. We just need good medical care and schools that have experience with special needs kids. Have mostly lived on the far outskirts of major cities but would love to go completely rural if we weren’t too far from basic stuff like the medical, schools, grocery, etc. We no longer want or need to be close to big city perks like entertainment and such....would drive to those as necessary from now on. We’re basically homebodies....still like to utilize libraries and such.....older kids like hands on things such as word working, welding, one of them wants to be a vet. The main problem we need resolved now is the kids need to be back in school. The governor in MN is using the virus to keep them home doing distance learning which is completely useless and unacceptable to us. We have 2 kids nearing graduation and do not want them to miss out on the remainder of their school experience from the social and educational aspect. They're talking about letting the elementary kids go back but every time they do they pull the plug and wind up going back to distance learning. As for my high schoolers, they will probably not go back for the remainder of this school year by the looks of it. We cannot live like this. All the "experts" (Fauci, CDC) who supposedly dictate the science we're supposed to be following have said it's totally safe for kids to be in school, so we need to be where that's the case.
I wonder if you are being realistic about the feasibility of moving in time to address this temporary issue. Do you expect to find and start a new job, find a new house (nice rental homes may not be easy to find, and buying/closing takes time), and physically move in time to get your kids back in school faster than they will be in MN? More importantly, do you really want to make a major decision like this on a rushed schedule?
My family moved several times when I was a child. Kids are adaptable, but it takes time to get settled in a new place. I question whether you would be saving your high schoolers' social and educational experience by uprooting them so close to graduation.
Anyway, my recommendation was going to be some of the small bedroom communities surrounding Waterloo/Cedar Falls. Janesville, ****/New Hartford, Denver, etc. Or alternatively, Clear Lake.
You would need to do your own due diligence on special ed programs as this is a specific need.
I wonder if you are being realistic about the feasibility of moving in time to address this temporary issue. Do you expect to find and start a new job, find a new house (nice rental homes may not be easy to find, and buying/closing takes time), and physically move in time to get your kids back in school faster than they will be in MN? More importantly, do you really want to make a major decision like this on a rushed schedule?
My family moved several times when I was a child. Kids are adaptable, but it takes time to get settled in a new place. I question whether you would be saving your high schoolers' social and educational experience by uprooting them so close to graduation.
Anyway, my recommendation was going to be some of the small bedroom communities surrounding Waterloo/Cedar Falls. Janesville, ****/New Hartford, Denver, etc. Or alternatively, Clear Lake.
You would need to do your own due diligence on special ed programs as this is a specific need.
We've moved 6 times to 4 different states since 2014 (mainly due to our daughters medical needs). You'd be surprised how fast you can make it happen when you home in on your target. I've moved us from one side of the country to the other in just 3 weeks before, getting set up with new jobs, new housing, the whole shebang. That is not a concern......at all. My kids do not have a lot of close friends or attachments......never have....it's just the way we're wired, total homebodies. We're close with family, but they're all in different states. The older kids especially have been begging me to move so they can go back to school. It's not the only reason we want to do it, but it is a significant one. I've actually been the one resisting until recently in the interest of not rushing into anything. You say "temporary" with the school situation. Well, like with everything else it was supposed to be "temporary" back in March and now here we are about to go into 2021 with no return to school in sight for my teenagers. That is not "temporary" to me, that is ridiculous.....especially given the "expert" opinions on the subject I mentioned previously. I will not wait beyond this current school year to get them back in school full time. Anyway...
We came to MN in 2017 with the intention of putting down roots and put everything we had into making that happen......but this state is controlled by the maniacal liberal pols based in the Twin Cities and they have gone off the deep end. I don't need to explain that in detail, we all know what's happened here this year. I knew this was a liberal state when we came here but it didn't bother me because I never liked to let politics dictate where I raised my family.....until this year. When they start allowing cities to burn, lauding criminals while demonizing and defunding law enforcement, destroying families and businesses through overreactive, power hungry edicts, closing the doors to schools for months at a time and continually electing politicians who are unabashedly anti-American that's where I draw the line. This is becoming an extremely unfriendly environment in which to raise a family and I will do whatever I have to in order to get that back for us. I didn't ask for any of it to happen, but it did and thank God we still have a choice as to whether we want to tolerate it or not.
Hope I don't come off as sharp or rude with that reply.....just trying to paint our picture. Appreciate the input and suggestions very much.
Last edited by Tyryztoll; 12-17-2020 at 08:58 AM..
The politicians and the cities here are in MN are getting way too crazy for us. Have always heard great things about Iowa and am thinking about moving us down that way. Need to be north of Des Moines so we can still take our daughter to her orthopedic hospital in St. Paul occasionally. I'm an x-ray tech specializing in CT scan, wife is a homemaker, have 4 kids, 2 are autistic. We also need our kids to be back in school full time and in person - badly. Has anyone from MN made the move to Iowa and how did it work out for you?
Although born and raised in Iowa, I worked for ten years in Hutchinson, MN before returning back to Iowa. I live in southeast Iowa so too far for you to travel easily to St. Paul on a regular basis but our school has been full time in person since the August start date. I was leery at first with sending out kids back but now I think it was absolutely the right decision. Few kids have contracted the virus and what few that bring it from home. There have been no spreading events at school other than a few sports teams where close contract abounds and social distancing isn't an option. I should note that our school district mandated masks from the beginning. Saying that, the virus has been hard on the adult teachers and staff at the school and they did have to shut down two days because there wasn't enough teachers well enough to keep it going.
Our school was the rarity in August but from what I have heard, most school are back to in person learning except for the larger urban areas. We were 100% virtual from March to June of this year and it was a complete disaster and for my kids, it was more like an extended summer break than school. I have heard from friends who still do virtual schooling and while they say it is a lot better, it is still very lacking and hard on the children.
I don't know what Mason City is doing with their schooling but have you looked there? It is a smaller town though has quite a bit of shopping so finding a place near there might be a good area while still being fairly close to St. Paul. Further down the road is Charles City which is a much smaller place but really beautiful and relaxing place to live. I have lots of relatives that grew up in that area so have visited them often over the years. There isn't much in town so you would still have to drive aways, to get supplies.
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