Too many kids in Maple Grove? (Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park: condo, new home, neighborhood)

[MidwestRedux]

My wife, daughter and I have been in Maple Grove for just about three weeks. Thanks to the excellent advice we received on this forum, we chose this town and our new home sight unseen. Overall, we are very pleased with our choice and love the amenities and accessibility of the town.

Two things have surprised us:

1. Everyone here is way more fashionable then we expected. This is ok, as no one seems too pretentious. Its just kind of surprising seeing well dressed people at Target on Tuesday night.

2. It seems like the median household consists of about four kids. Large families appear to represent an overwhelming majority, while there are very few families that have just one or two kids. I don't know if this is regionally or town specific, but it seems that many people married and started families at a much younger age than we did, and just kept having kids.

My wife and I are somewhat older parents and have an only child by a combination of choice and biology. We can't help but wonder if in the long run, this may not be the right place for us. Like most people, we would prefer to be surrounded by our peers. We don't have anything against larger/younger families, we just aren't sure if we will be able to connect as well with them as we would with people in similar circumstances.

So, the question(s) is/are:

Is this a case of confirmation bias? I looked for data on family/household size and couldn't see any pronounced difference between Maple Grove and other places. Does anyone have any facts or anecdotes to support whether or not people here have more kids?

If we want to be around older parents with only children, are there other places we should be looking to settle down? Would we find more of the same in Southwest Minneapolis, St Louis Park or elsewhere?

Any thoughts, suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Thedosius]

It does happen periodically that the child population in Maple Grove gets out of hand, but that's because the DNR declared them an endangered species a couple decades ago. Fortunately, if the count gets too high they let hunters bag a bunch of them over a two week period in the fall.

Yes, families are large and parents are quite young in Minnesota in general. There's not much to do in the long winter months so to keep warm and occupied we turn to carnal acts. It's especially useful when you turn your thermostat down to save on energy bills. On top of the extra naughtiness, condoms here tend to freeze and crack.

In all seriousness, 4 kids seems like a rather larger than median family here. I would guess that you're right about your perception being a result of confirmation bias. However, to get better advice, you might have to do the unthinkable and give us your 'age range' so we can think what areas might be more fitting.

[Kebinminn]

I live in the inner suburbs and most families I know have more than once child. I don't think it matters where you live around here; you'll find more families with more than one child. In my neighborhood the only other onlies are babies. There may be fewer homes with kids but, from what I see, there's not a ton of only children.

With that we met other older parents with only children. I met them at library story time or in community ed classes. Us older parents were drawn to each other I guess. You'll find them. Most only children I know have older parents. I didn't set out to hang out with a group of old moms with only kids but it worked out that way. We all lived in different suburbs.

Now that my son is older he chooses his friends. One friend is another only child with older parents but another good friend has a younger parents and two other siblings. They're both great. I love that he can enjoy the chaos of hanging out with more kids once in a while.

I suspect as you get into activities you'll find families to connect to. If you want a taste of an older suburb with smaller houses to see if it makes a difference try doing community ed in Crystal. It's close to Maple Grove but has its share of smaller homes.

[Chubsworth]

The largest group in Maple Grove is people age 45-55. There are not that many children, relatively. Most of the young families with a lot of kids live within the city or out in the sticks. You are probably seeing people from outstate driving into Maple Grove to go shopping. Everyone dresses better now thanks to the internet and outlet malls.

[uptown_urbanist]

I'm guessing it's partly confirmation bias, but also maybe the large families are just more drawn to Maple Grove? I live in Uptown in Minneapolis, and while many of the families around here have two kids, it's not unusual to have only one, and big families are relatively rare, probably in part because large families are still more unusual these days, and partly, I assume, because big families are going to be drawn to bigger houses, and those are easier to find in newer suburbs.

How old is old? I would say that among my Minnesota peers, the average age for having a first kid is in the early 30s, although I know plenty of people who had their first kid in their 20s, and plenty in their late 30s.

I wouldn't worry about not fitting in yet. I have one kid, yet I still love hanging out with parents who have large families. Same thing with age; nothing wrong with having friends older or younger than you. Now maybe you won't feel like MG feels like home for plenty of other reasons, but I wouldn't jump to assumptions based just on family differences.

[Old Prospector]

Just curious about the comment regarding Maple Grove residents as fashionable. Is it that people are shopping at Target in their work clothes? As someone that isn't fashionable at all, I think it's fascinating.

As for the larger families, I'm guessing that this will be more likely in the outer ring burbs like MG.

[Rhody2Mn]

When I first moved here, I also noticed a plethora of large, young families in comparion to other places I've lived. I think I read somewhere (unfortunately I can't recall the source at the moment) that Minnesotans in general tend to marry at an earlier age and have larger familes than people in other states. I think this is especially true outstate and in the outer suburbs of the Twin Cities such as Maple Grove or Lakeville (where I live and which also has an abundance of kids).

Minnesota, with its relatively affordable cost of living and large quantity of communities that offer great parks, schools, and opportunities for children, has a very high quality of life and family friendly atmosphere that likely draws both large and large numbers of families in comparison to other areas of the country.

As far as different places for you to consider, as previously suggested you might look in inner-ring suburbs such as Edina, Richfield, or St. Louis Park. While you'll still see numerous children in these areas, the population tends to skew older and I don't think the families will likely be as large as what you'll find in the outer areas of the Twin Cities.

[northsub]

Here's a breakdown of household size for Maple Grove according to the 2010 census:
1-person: 19.3%
2-person: 34.3%
3-person: 18.2%
4-person: 18.3%
5-person: 7.0%
6-person: 2.0%
7+person: 0.8%

By comparison, here's St. Louis Park:
1-person: 40.1%
2-person: 34.6%
3-person: 12.6%
4-person: 8.3%
5-person: 3.0%
6-person: 0.9%
7+person: 0.5%

If you took out the 1 and 2 person households, those are pretty similar with St. Louis Park having somewhat more 3 vs 4 person households.
Maple Grove / St. Louis Park
3-person: 39% / 50%
4-person: 40% / 33%
5-person: 15% / 12%
6-person: 4% / 4%
7+person: 2% / 2%

So, the basic difference in household size between Maple Grove and St. Louis Park is that St. Louis Park has more 1 and 2 person households. I would guess that is largely a reflection of St. Louis Park having a much higher % of people 62 and over.

What you might be noticing while shopping is the household size breakdown for Brooklyn Park:
1-person: 22.3%
2-person: 30.1%
3-person: 16.6%
4-person: 15.5%
5-person: 7.7%
6-person: 3.8%
7+person: 4.0%

That's still a median of much less than 6-person household. But, assuming each household has 2 adults and the rest children (faulty assumption, but I don't know what else to work with) you get the median number of siblings for a child being 2 (so 3 children in family). There are other factors to consider (1 vs 2 vs more adults in a household, data for certain age of householder, age of children, etc.).

[Chubsworth]

If ranked by state, Minnesota is actually in the bottom five for family size and about the middle for average age of marriage.

[Thegonagle]

Larger families need and want bigger houses. From everything I can see, there's a ready supply of nice big 4+ bedroom houses in Maple Grove for prices that aren't outrageous given its proximity to downtown Minneapolis.