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Why Move to Iowa???

M

MileHiCyclone

New Member
Dec 5, 2011
16
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1
Denver, CO
Let me explain a little before you jump all over me...

I love Iowa and have been away for too long, so I have the itch to move back but my wife is an obstacle. She was born in LA and then lived in Tucson, AZ till I moved her away. She loves to visit Iowa on vacation but isn't real excited about the idea of living there.

I need help convincing her and any ideas are welcome. We would have to live in the Des Moines area as I would work at the airport. Please help I need to get closer to the Cyclones so my kids can love them like I do!!!
 
Great communities. Low crime rates. Good (but getting worse) school systems. Good employment opportunities. Low cost of living. "Iowa Nice" etc.

And above all......you would be 30 minutes from the Jack/Hilton!
 
I moved back in 2004 after being away for 13-14 years. It is great to be close to family but the charm and nostalgia of being back here wore off several years ago. I'd like to move on. My wife and I don't have kids which I imagine would be an important consideration.
 
Moved to St. Louis after college and I loved it there but my wife who is from Story City wanted to be closer to home, so we moved back. I will never leave Ames again. Its a gem of a small city and DM is close enough when ever I want to do more than Ames has. Oh ya I live 4 minutes from JTS and Hilton. :smile:
 
MileHiCyclone said:
Let me explain a little before you jump all over me...

I love Iowa and have been away for too long, so I have the itch to move back but my wife is an obstacle. She was born in LA and then lived in Tucson, AZ till I moved her away. She loves to visit Iowa on vacation but isn't real excited about the idea of living there.

I need help convincing her and any ideas are welcome. We would have to live in the Des Moines area as I would work at the airport. Please help I need to get closer to the Cyclones so my kids can love them like I do!!!
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I'm not sure how old your children are, but if I were in your shoes, their upbringing would be the #1 factor...and there are lots of reasons Iowa is great for raising children:

A) Low cost of living.
B) Low crime.
C) Great public schools.
D) Great, affordable options for post-secondary education in-state.

There are also some cons to consider:

1) In many school districts, your kids won't be exposed to a lot of diversity (my high school, which was of average size in the state, was 99% WASP). This should be less of an issue in Des Moines, though.
2) You're 3-4 hours from a major city if you count KC; even further if Chicago is your idea of a "real" city. I.e., depending on what you and your family like to do for entertainment, it might get pretty boring.
3) Weather...especially if your wife is used to LA.

If your kids are at all like me, I'm sure they'd fall in love with Cyclone sports the first time they walk into Hilton before a game and watch the players warm up or hearing how loud the crowd is at Jack Trice. I hate to say it, but they'd probably feel that way at any university athletic event you take them to, be it ISU or Arizona; it's a pretty impressive thing for any child to see. It was definitely love at first sight for me!
 
I moved back from Texas mostly because of the weather. Might not be the selling point you are looking for though.
 
I know for me, I just love being in the country. The idea of being able to live in the country and still be close to the major metro areas (DSM, CR/IC, Quad Cities) is awesome, IMO. I grew up "in town" (if you can count Corydon as "in town"), but living in a country home would be fantastic, IMO. It's one of the reasons I would prefer not to leave the state after graduation, if I can help it. Plus most of my family is still in the state.

All the other reasons previously mentioned are good, too. And, depending on whether your kids are into sports, baseball and softball are summer sports here (not so much a selling point for the wife, but indirect fire works, too), where in many states they're spring sports (forcing kids to choose between baseball/softball, soccer, track, and golf, rather than letting them play in two of those sports).
 
MileHiCyclone said:
Let me explain a little before you jump all over me...

I love Iowa and have been away for too long, so I have the itch to move back but my wife is an obstacle. She was born in LA and then lived in Tucson, AZ till I moved her away. She loves to visit Iowa on vacation but isn't real excited about the idea of living there.

I need help convincing her and any ideas are welcome. We would have to live in the Des Moines area as I would work at the airport. Please help I need to get closer to the Cyclones so my kids can love them like I do!!!
Click to expand...
If you move back make it central Iowa--either D.M. or a nearby bedroom or outlying community.

I live in Shmuckeyeville part of Iowa (east-central) and if it wasn't for aging parents and aging in-laws living in town, and a house we like--we'd be moving to central Iowa or perhaps KC, Minneapolis, Denver, etc., in a heartbeat
 
DistrictCyclone said:
There are also some cons to consider:

1) In many school districts, your kids won't be exposed to a lot of diversity (my high school, which was of average size in the state, was 99% WASP). This should be less of an issue in Des Moines, though.
2) You're 3-4 hours from a major city if you count KC; even further if Chicago is your idea of a "real" city. I.e., depending on what you and your family like to do for entertainment, it might get pretty boring.
3) Weather...especially if your wife is used to LA.

The diversity issue is not that big of a deal to me, my school was the same way. Your kids will react the way you teach them to.

The big city thing is what gets to my wife the most. I would be perfectly happy with living in a town of 500.

Weather is a smaller issue, we lived in Joplin, MO for a year so she was introduced to Tornado/Thunderstorms and we live in Denver now so the snow wouldn't bother her either.
Click to expand...
 
MileHiCyclone said:
DistrictCyclone said:
The big city thing is what gets to my wife the most. I would be perfectly happy with living in a town of 500.
Click to expand...

Maybe you could play up the "we'll be close to several cities in every direction" angle? Chicago, KC, StL, Twin Cities, Omaha, and Milwaukee are all within a half-day's drive from Des Moines, so you'd have plenty of choices for visiting cities when you wanted to.

Living on a coast now, with the ocean to the east and the Appalachians to the west, this mobility is definitely something I took for granted. If I want to go visit another major nearby city for the weekend, my options are basically limited to whatever lies between DC and NYC. Fortunately, that happens to include quite a bit.
Click to expand...
 
MileHiCyclone said:
DistrictCyclone said:
There are also some cons to consider:

1) In many school districts, your kids won't be exposed to a lot of diversity (my high school, which was of average size in the state, was 99% WASP). This should be less of an issue in Des Moines, though.
2) You're 3-4 hours from a major city if you count KC; even further if Chicago is your idea of a "real" city. I.e., depending on what you and your family like to do for entertainment, it might get pretty boring.
3) Weather...especially if your wife is used to LA.

The diversity issue is not that big of a deal to me, my school was the same way. Your kids will react the way you teach them to.

The big city thing is what gets to my wife the most. I would be perfectly happy with living in a town of 500.

Weather is a smaller issue, we lived in Joplin, MO for a year so she was introduced to Tornado/Thunderstorms and we live in Denver now so the snow wouldn't bother her either.
Click to expand...

While it's true there's not a lot of diversity in the state, particularly outside of the metro areas, I agree it's not a huge issue if your kids are raised right. I've gotten a dose of culture shock here in Iowa City with a Chinese roommate last year and a Malaysian one this year, but it's not a huge deal. It did sometimes get tiring, having to explain things that are so mundane to us; the Super Bowl, for example. And I didn't know how to explain it, because the explanations usually needed explaining, too. He was a great guy, and we still hang out from time to time, it's just every now and then that got a little frustrating.
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tm3308 said:
MileHiCyclone said:
While it's true there's not a lot of diversity in the state, particularly outside of the metro areas, I agree it's not a huge issue if your kids are raised right. I've gotten a dose of culture shock here in Iowa City with a Chinese roommate last year and a Malaysian one this year, but it's not a huge deal. It did sometimes get tiring, having to explain things that are so mundane to us; the Super Bowl, for example. And I didn't know how to explain it, because the explanations usually needed explaining, too. He was a great guy, and we still hang out from time to time, it's just every now and then that got a little frustrating.
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I totally agree that it's not going to make raising kids difficult or turn them into bigots or anything like that, but having been on both sides of the coin myself, I do think there was a lot that I missed out on being "isolated" from a lot of social variety. Primary schools won't ever be as geographically diverse as college campuses, by definition, but I definitely believe that I would have benefited from interacting more with people of different religious, ethnic, and especially economic backgrounds at an earlier age than I did. But you're right; not being exposed to a lot of diversity probably won't turn anyone rotten.
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Mediacrum.
Story City Days.
Annual floods to help[ practice sandbagging manuevers..
VEISHA.
Antique Tractor Days.
County fairs.
Great casucus politicos plus Deace.
Halloween mazes.
Southwest Airlines.
CPR gold tournament.
Free pets from CW.
 
Honestly, I think you need to focus on things that she does not know are benefits.

Community. If you are living in a small to medium sized town/city in Iowa you can make close friends with those you live around. These people will watch you house, mow your yard, or even protect you from the occasional marauding hawk fan.

Low cost of living. It doesn't matter if it is groceries or travel time to work, it is cheap to live in Iowa. Hearing the stories of hour long commutes from either coastlines, it is a blessing to drive 10 minutes to class/work for me.

Traditional way of life. This is a little of catch all so bear with me. I am guessing that you have family in Iowa. Which means that if you have kids they will be around more caring adults that will have a positive impact on them. Also, there is something to slowing down and unplugging from high contact, high speed way of life in more populated areas. What kids (or even adults) don't like going on simple adventures to see what is around the corner. Whether you are taking your kids to see ledges park in Ames, or you and your significant other are fishing on a farm pond, there is something spiritual about it.

No you can't go to Jay-z and Kings of Leon concerts every other month. You can however make lifelong connections with your neighbors, your family(those your kids would have more contact with) and your environment.
 
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