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Hi everyone. My husband is interviewing for a job in Morrisville. I'd like to research the area and see what it has to offer for a young family with a 3 year old. Of course, good schools are at the top of the list, but with the possibility of another baby in the future, I need an area that has a lot of entertainment for young ones. I also have a lab mix puppy who will need lots of backyard space and walking trails. Anyone have any recommendations?
I would recommend joining triangle mommies, it is a great group that has playgroups, area groups (groups based on your location in the triangle), and lots of great advice!!!
Hi everyone. My husband is interviewing for a job in Morrisville. I'd like to research the area and see what it has to offer for a young family with a 3 year old. Of course, good schools are at the top of the list, but with the possibility of another baby in the future, I need an area that has a lot of entertainment for young ones. I also have a lab mix puppy who will need lots of backyard space and walking trails. Anyone have any recommendations?
The best (only?) thing that Morrisville has going for it is that it is sandwiched between RTP and Cary
There are lots of other areas near Morrisville to live in that have more to offer. Holly Springs is great, very family friendly, great schools and more affordable housing. It's only about a 20 minute commute to Morrisville. Can't recommend it enough!
I live in Mo'ville. Its total suburbia and there are probably more kids entertainment opportunities here than anywhere else I can imagine, and as its literally in the center of the triangle, everything is relatively close. There are tons of families with small kids here, all the (wake county) schools are good, and there are a lot of parks and playgrounds. There are traditional calendar (cedar fork), a year round (morrisville), and a charter (sterling montessori) elementary schools that you can choose from assuming your kid is aging, and not transfering into school. The town is in the process of building a greenway/trail network that will take you to most parts of town and connect to trails in Cary and RTP, and there are lots of nature trails, playgrounds and boat rentals in Lake Crabtree park. There is a new library that has a large kids section and does storytimes and other kids programs. The town has 2 community centers, and of course there are more nearby in Cary that are open to non-Cary residents, but are generally costlier than morrisville. There is also a gym with a full gymnastics program, there is a large indoor athletics complex, an indoor/outdoor pool and a huge tennis complex. Between the two towns you can find just about any youth sport or activity you can or cant think of. My kids have done things including soccer, swimming, art, painting, karate, general play, ballet, and a bunch of others, that are typically about $30-50 a month, which is a lot cheaper than other areas. One of morrisville's community centers is attached to the traditional school that offers preschool for about $100 a month as well as before, after school and teacher work day care for students.
As for shopping, there are a lot of grocery stores and restaraunts, but few general retailers in the immediate area. A new superwalmart/sams club is about to open in teh part of town that is technically in Durham. There is a small outlet mall near the airport, but its pretty sparse in there. Its about a 10 minute drive to 3 major shopping areas; crossroads (NE cary), briar creek (W Raleigh), and beaver creek (N Apex), and about the same to 2 malls; southpoint (SE durham) and cary town center (central cary, not very nice though). A huge mixed use development that will supposedly have a upscale shopping is going in on the eastern part of town between morrisviile and cary parkways. Other than restaraunts, a movie theater and 2 bars, there isn't much in the way of night life. However, its about 20 minutes to downtown CH, durham or raleigh.
Now for the downsides - the town is in RDU's flight path and has a RR track through it - we don't notice the noise anymore but it may bother some. If you have an elementary (older than kindergarten) aged kid, cedar fork elem is capped and both the other schools are a lottery whether you will get in them until more schools open in the next couple of years. If your kids are kindergarten or younger, the cap does not apply to you. Also, a small part of the town is in Durham county and there is one development selling houses there. The school they go to is Bethesda elementary in NE durham, which is awful (based on 1st hand experience and knowing a teacher there). So don't move there despite the cheap houses unless you want to do home or private school. Finally, there is a fair amount of congestion, especially around morrisville-carpenter rd in rush hour because of the number of commuters that drive thru on the way to RTP, but there are road widenign projects in the works for most of the problem areas so it should be better in a few months.
Last edited by emanresu2; 04-15-2009 at 03:46 PM..
Don't look just in Morrisville just because your husband's job is there--Cary, Raleigh, and Durham are all practically smashed against each other right there, so you have more options than just Morrisville proper.
I'll second trianglemommies.com as a great place to get information for moms and kids, as well as good general info on the area and making friends. As for things to do with the kids, you should not have an issue finding things. There are dozens of parks, playgrounds, kids museums and play places to choose from around the triangle area, many of them fairly close to Morrisville or the surrounding areas. I live in Apex, not too far from Morrisville and can get to almost anywhere I need within 15 minutes for kid stuff.
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